I just wish that robotic craft had been around in 1492...that way the Spanish royals could have sent a probe over to see what the New World looked like rather than sending humans. That certainly would have worked out better. /sarcasm off
Luckily we have robots in 2006, and those risks are not necessary. The Spanish may have used them too, if they had them, which says nothing of their sponsoring a trip without robots as was actually done.
Now you may suggest that I don't recognize sarcasm, or that yours was so overpowering that I should have relented and stop using logic because I lack your (non-) humor.
"We have whole planets to explore, we have new worlds to build. We have a solar system to roam in. And if only a tiny fraction of the human race reaches out toward space, the work they do there will totally change the lives of all the billions of humans who remain on earth, just as the strivings of a handful of colonists in the new world totally changed the lives of everyone in Europe, Asia & Africa." -Astronaut Dick Scobee (A note found in his briefcase by his wife after he was lost on Challenger)
His widow June wrote.......
"Had Dick left the note in his briefcase for us to find if something happened? Did he write it on scratch paper to use to quote in a speech? All we'll ever know is that when we most needed a message, it was there. He left for us his dream for the world, his vision for space exploration."