That's extremely interesting, may I ask in what capacity you were involved?
I happen to believe that the future of humanity has to lie in space exploration. I argue this with one of my friends, his position is that the money spent on NASA ought to be used here on earth, for social engineering, developing a new energy source for cars or whatever. My answer is that while the short term benefits of spending the funds like that may seem to be greater, the long term benefits of space exploration are everything, they are our future.
I think your pessimism regarding life elsewhere could be overstated, it seems to me that, good as the arguements against it may seem, they may well presume an understanding of the universe that we have not yet attained. Kind of like trying to determine the existence of God through logic, perhaps it can't be done.
OTOH, sometimes I personally feel like humanity is doomed to be a failed species.
I also have a fear that discovery of an alien life form could be an unpleasant surprise, particularly if they are not only more technologically advanced than us, but also advanced greatly in intelligence.