I didn't say that manned exploration money would get transferred to unmanned exploration, but that unmanned exploration would do fine if Nasa cancelled the manned program.

I do believe however that when the manned program goes through budget-busting episodes like in the 80's, the unmanned program often suffers. Bush's idea of sending people to the moon, and nowhere else, could do that to the unmanned program.

I agree that unmanned space science has high funding relative to other science because of political support, but again people love those pictures of Mars and Saturn brought to them by robots. They also want to go there someday, and we will. I don't think Nasa's manned program can or will do the right job.

This is all meaningless argument though - Texas and Florida have a political lock on the budget, so the manned program will stay.