As someone who has always been fascinated by Space, reads a lot of SF and generally feels quite positive about Space exploration, I nonetheless think manned Spa

As someone who has always been fascinated by Space, reads a lot of SF and generally feels quite positive about Space exploration, I nonetheless think manned Space exploration and human colonisation of other planets is really not a good goal. I know it's dramatic. I know many people concern themselves with the long term viability of the human species (as something important). Personally though it seems like robotic exploration is just much more sensible and useful. Humans are not going to thrive in any of these environments: they're absolutely horrific in every way. I mean maybe if we went down the "Man Plus" route (or the more fanciful bio-engineering of Clifford Simak's Desertion) then it would make some kind of sense. Also my feeling is that our interminable survival as a species is not necessarily that big a deal AND I don't really believe we have any viable strategy for keeping people out there... What else I am missing? Why do we spend so much energy on putting people into space?