"That is what I want to know more than just about anything else: Is humanity an aberration or as common as dust in the Cosmos?"

I think that anything vaguely like humans is an aberration in the cosmos.

I also think England and it's colonies is an aberration in humanity. And the American Constitution and govt is an even more severe aberration.

The idea that humans are progressing is a modern idea. And btw, a modern idea which currently seems to be going out of fashion.

In the present time with it's social ideas, it seems unlikely we could develop such a thing as a car and all the roads it needs- obviously such as thing is too dangerous, a waste of resources, not needed for the good of society, and it's laughable to imagine a govt developing it.

The way wars are run presently is abnormal considering we have the technology of nuclear weapons or that we simply have long range bombers merely using conventional warheads.
But we don't think in such obvious terms, because America ideals dictate how wars should be conducted. But had America not won WWII [which was a fairly improbable event] German and Japan ideals would have dictated how wars should be conducted.

But now, many imagine that American ideals are somehow the way things going to to run in the future. But that isn't how it works. Humans in general, simply favor what works and/or pick the strong horse.

Without freedom, over the long term, science will fail, and therefore in future, the idea that humans went to the Moon could be considered by many as a myth.
The good news is that humans are a bit like herding cats, so the future, even in worse case, humans should develop more "aberrations".
And as far as space exploration, humans could do it quickly if they really wanted to and it doesn't require very much- meaning a nation as small [and "resource poor"] as say, the Philippines could go from a pre-industrial state to spacefaring with lunar colonies within a century.
What would be needed isn't the blue prints to the Saturn V, but rather an enlightened nation- someplace where humans had freedom.