Discussing about the merits of capsules or winged spacecrafts to send astronauts to space with a friend working at the ESA, he tols me that there is no reason to send humans anywhere else but LEO and they're planning for a future Mars program, even manned.
But there's no point for humans to actually go to Polar Earth Orbit, GEO , the L1 and L2 points (either from the Earth-Moon system or the Sun-Earth system), even back to the Moon, but Mars is the goal.
Which made me think: LEO's current ISS inclination isn't ideal.
There might be a future manned space station, independant from ISS, with other goals in mind like preparation for Mars (or even the Moon) and in a 0° inclination, launched from a Sea-Launch platform (cheaper access with heavier mass in orbit capabilities).

But then again, preparation could be achieved in the ISS, provided no orbital platform would be needed for the assembly of a Mars bound spacecraft if the whole thing can be launched at once from the ground.

Raoul