The scientific community leaped for joy on Wednesday night as the European Space Agency probe Philae landed on the surface of the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

This is a huge achievement, the concept of which first began in 1996. Scientists hope the probe will analyse the comet's surface to yield insights into the origins of our Solar System.

The European Space Agency's Rosetta satellite carried Philae on a 6.4 billion-km journey to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The robot probe, the size of a washing machine, was launched from the satellite on Wednesday and spent seven hours travelling to the comet.

There have been some glitches as its anchors did not fire correctly, but the space craft has landed, it is beaming back pictures and also transmitting data which scientists, will no doubt find fascinating.

 But the cost has been astronomical. The cost of the project has totalled €1.4bn. To put it into context, €1.4bn can buy you four A380s. To further put it into context, the World Health Organisation is struggling to raise €100 million to combat the spread of Ebola. The WHO's budget to fight influenza is set at about €7m per year.

There is no doubt that science is a very important subject matter. But, and here is the but, that project was financed by citizens of the European Union. If you break it down, it works out to €3.50 per European Union citizen in taxes. That works out to a cost of €0.20c per year per citizen.

When one looks at the local angle, Malta will be contributing just over €500m to the EU's coffers for the next budget period 2014-2020 while it will be receiving just over €1bn. What the world will get out of this experiment is anyone's guess. We might find the keys to a new and non-pollutant fuel. We might find the key to landing pilotless craft on other planets in the decades to come. We might even find the cure for cancer.

But in a world where citizens are struggling to find jobs and to make ends meet as Europe implements more austerity measures to combat the effects of the financial crisis, it makes us ask serious questions. What exactly does €1.4bn quantify? A washing machine sized robot on a comet? Or thousands, if not millions of families being given a leg up and more support in an ever increasingly harsh and competitive environment back here on earth?

Science is the key to our advancement, true. But at what cost? Do we pour more money into such expeditions, or would we be better off in researching new forms of renewable power, such as road lighting systems and electricity systems (which do work) such as those that are powered by the pressure of people's footsteps and the pressure of vehicles on road surfaces? This was definitely an achievement for the human race, but at what cost?