Hubris and greed.

Editor,

Manned space missions are more expensive than robotic missions because keeping humans alive in space is difficult. If scientific knowledge is the goal, why spend money blasting human payloads hither and yon? Many more unmanned vehicles can be launched for the price of one manned vehicle and yield more information.

Besides, ruling class humans ruin everything they touch and kill or enslave every sentient being they encounter. Launching the sort of wanton destruction that derives from their hubris and greed into the cosmos is something the rest of the universe can do without.

re: "A New Space Program" (2/9/2010)