A new Moon race has begun

We still pay hefty amounts of money to oil rig workers and underwater welders, even here on Earth. Robot telepresence has a long way to go before we can build an entire refinery in zero-G.

> If space exploration continues to focus on sending robots to other planets, "we will learn less about the solar system in the next 100 years than we will if we engage in an ambitious program of human exploration,"

In other words, sending humans could be more efficient use of funds. This is an old topic which was rehashed many times; some conclude that robot's advantage here is not real.

we need the experience from sending 5, 10, etc people there before we can send hundred or more.

we need much more data on the effects of longterm space travel. this kind of experience can not be bootstrapped.

bootstrapping colonization would be worthwhile if we were ready to build a viable colony in the next few decades. but i do not believe we are.

i believe we do not yet have enough data to know if long term space missions are even possible.

getting machines to mars is easy. but getting the experience necessary for human colonization alone will take several decades more before we are ready. we don't need that bootstrapping as much as we need the experience of human spaceflight in order to build a colony.