Last night the PBS News Hour did a segment on the Orion Spacecraft, and on its maybe bleak future? Bleak not because of science but because of the budget. Some people, a greater number than one would like, treat the American space program like it is a luxury that America can not afford. I think America can not afford to neglect space exploration and research. I think man kind can not afford the luxury of its continual ignorance of things out there beyond our planet.
Earlier Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, explained the "importance" of the human race continuing the exploration of space. He thinks man will have to expand into space in order to survive. See the video.
If at this time of tight budgets, the money can only be found for unmanned interplanetary trips, we should do unmanned interplanetary trips. If we can only find the dollars to send a crew of robots, then we must do that, in order to continue the research and the exploration. I think it is very important for man to master space travel. There are so many reasons why. There will come a time, if the human race survives long enough, when our sun will exhaust its fuel, and mankind will need to be able to keep the sun from dying, or will need to be able to leave this solar system. There may come a time when the earth may be under threat from intelligent guided or just natural objects, and man will need to be able to reach out into space and to save himself and to save the planet.
Item from the PBS News Hour -- "Despite budget constraints, Congress last October approved a deep-space crew vehicle called Orion. Lockheed-Martin, the nation's largest defense contractor, got the assignment, and has made a major financial commitment in Denver toward completing that mission. The spacecraft was unveiled in Denver last week." See the video.