Sawyer, I agree with your logic (colonisation as a goal, machines to do the groundwork and exploration) but I think you over systematise things. I suspect that without human faces and 'everest climbing' to inspire interest the manned space program will die long before the development of offworld colonies. The automation will fulfill the other requirements so well that no one will be willing to fund people in space for their own sake. Do we have an undersea colony, ISS or even undersea space capsule equivelent since robots proved so effective down there? I can't prove that continued manned deep ocean exploration would have led to any of that but exploration by proxy certainly hasn't!

Telepresence needs to be developed in conjunction with manned space exploration, rather than instead of it, at least if offworld colonies are a goal ( and like you I believe they should be).