The instant someone mentions robotic exploration of space the image of Sagan pops up. He is the man who killed the space program, and his agitation for using robots to the exclusion of human beings, for whatever reason, is why there is no moon base, no Mars base, no asteroid mining, no private property rights in outer space, and why people think we never went to the moon at all but Planet X is coming to knock us on the head. Sagan ===> Space Aliens.
That's how it is. Let me just ask, if we aren't going to go into space ourselves and build settlements, why bother sending robots?
Thanks! I didn't know that. I despised Sagan so there is one strike against unmanned flight for me (irrational as my feeling may be).
See some people refer to Ben Bova and say manned vs unmanned is a phony debate--it is not either/or. Another good comment I saw is that people tend to see the debate of how to spend the money within the budget of NASA. That appeals to me. The debate should be how much to spend within the budgets of NASA, HUD, the NEA--among others--for space exploration. I tend towards 100%.