re: #629 Cato the Elder

No - I never said that.

Everything that can be accomplished by hoo-rah manned missions can be done better and more cheaply with unmanned probes. Trying to build a factory on the moon supposedly to save money on lift-off expenses for fantasized trips to - where, exactly? - is your classic boondoggle.

I’m for smart exploration.

Actually, no.
A robot can only do what it is designed to do. A human with equipment can vary the experiment to compensate for different conditions. For example, had people been running the life detection experiments that the Viking landers had (by using more general purpose equipent), they could have figured out why they showed ambiguous results.

And then, robotic visits aren’t really exploration.
If you think they are, I would assume you would be perfectly happy by taking a virtual tour of, say, Paris, instead of going there.