Space Exploration Isnโt Just About Science.
Yep. The whole point of space exploration is and should be boots on the fucking ground.
Sending robots to poke rocks is very cool, but ultimately pointless. Itโs just preparatory.
Iโm bewildered by people who are so small in spirit and lacking in passion to think that sending a robot to molest some Martian hematite is a substitute for Sunita Williams picking it up with her hands and looking at it with her eyes under pale Martian light.
Iโm not for human exploration because itโs useful, nor because itโs good economics, nor because it is safe โ I am for it because it is the opposite of all of these things.