> This last paragraph of yours is a mirror image of the same argument against manned space exploration...

Indeed it is the exact same argument and it has been made more eloquently by much greater men than I. Freeman Dyson made the argument in a talk he gave at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics titled "Living Through Four Revolutions"[1]. He discusses the International Space Station (ISS) starting at about the 7:15 mark and he adds the following quip:

> [The Russians] are very proud of the space station and for good reasons. They believe that human activities in space are an end in itself, essentially as an international sporting event. They don't sell it under false pretences as a scientific program.

[1] https://perimeterinstitute.ca/videos/living-through-four-rev...