I would still wonder "why?"
Obviously, from previous posts, folks know I'm a big science fiction fan but from a practical point of view, robots can do pretty much all you need to get done for a fraction of the cost.
All the great discoveries since the early 1980's have generally come via robots exploring our region of space. There have been failures but generally they're inconsequential in cost compared to what might have been the case if men had gone to do the same job.
In the late 1960's, there was certainly a hew and cry over the billions that were going into the space program at the time.
"With so many problems on earth, why are we spending so much on this?" was the classic question at the time.
"Well, you couldn't leave the moon to the Commies!!!," was the usual answer and fairly, that was a pretty popular answer at the time.
The USA beat the Commies to the moon . . . . . it wasn't for the good of mankind necessarily.
Spend $100 billion to go to the moon? In all seriousness, why?
Tell me you're going to Alpha Centauri or somewhere interesting like that, a place that would push the discovery of brazen new technologies out of sheer necessity.
Send robots. They don't scream when they die.
Gurgle.
Cowperson