We've talked about this before, but what better place to do it than here, right? The people who post here are all fans of manned exploration, that's why we come here, but we also have to keep in mind that manned space travel is not very financially effective or resource efficient. Over-reliance on manned space travel treatens the space program as a whole.

Yes, I agree, there are probably some missions that can only be handled by live crews, and we are going to have to develop that technology so we will be ready for them. So an emphasis on robots shouldn't overwhelm manned efforts, but the latter is going to have to take a back seat until we start fielding missions which will require men.

I bellieve the best way to assure the future of manned space travel (which I support) is to de-emphasize it now and explore space with as many automated probes as possible until we identify those missions which demand human crews.

I would recommend we maintain the space station, because we already have such a huge investment in it, but that we cut back on advanced manned vehicle development and manned lunar or planetary exploration. Supplying the space station should be relegated to second generation robust, inexpensive vehicles similar to the current Russian supply ships. The savings generated by this strategy could then be diverted to an ambitious unmanned exploration of the solar system.

I am convinced that a really thorough and vigorous robot program will eventually turn up exciting missions that require manned crews. The heavy lift vehicles and orbital docking facilities we will develop for our more advanced probes will be adaptable for these manned missions, and the space medicine we develop on the space station will pay off when we finally send men and women. If we are patient, we can have our cake and eat it too. And all those robots are going to send back so many neat pictures...