Perhaps I should've re-worded my previous comment because I did not mean to suggest that we abandon manned missions forever or that we try to experience space vicariously through robots.

I'll elaborate. There is tremendous risk involved in sending people to space, I'm sure those who sign up for it understand and accept that, but it's a tragedy when it goes wrong given the caliber of people who end up dying. The overhead in designing for human needs (oxygen, water, food, waste facilities, etc) seems like a waste of time and engineering effort until we can better guarantee their safety. Of course I think the time will come when it becomes as safe and accessible as a trip on a 747, but I think an effort in purely autonomous systems that parallels the efforts being done on manned space technology should be considered to serve as a supplemental aid to further space research - a lot of which, I'm sure, would end up contributing to that dream of reaching the stars.