If someone offered me the chance to travel the solar system, watch the sun rise on mars, jump off vertical cliffs on a moon, see jupiter and saturn up close, ... I would do it in a heartbeat
Do I think human space travel is feasible or even necessary at least at this point in time? No, not by a long shot. Machines can do a better job and will probably always be able to do it better if technology keeps advancing. Machines don't need air, water, food, living space, and that's some of the stuff needed just to keep us alive in an hostile environment, all resources can be instead focused on the mission itself.
I think that people tend to forget that we don't just happen live on planet Earth, we where born by it, molded by it :)
If we'd evolved anywhere else then that place would probably be by far the best possible habitat for us too.
Although If we could somehow get rid of the human body, just take a brain, equip it with a neural interface of some kind and put it in a water tank ...
Other than earth? I might like to visit there, but I don't
want to live there!
But with the realities, as you outlined,
of visiting, really I wouldn't want to do that, either.
Mars? Okay, send a lot of robots. Let the robots
get a good base going. Let the robots mine Mars
to get fuel for return trips. Let the robots
come and go until it all seems highly reliable.
Go to the trouble to get enough mass for cosmic
ray protection. Let some high risk takers go
and return. Then, maybe, maybe, maybe I'd
consider a visit! But that whole scenario
is not nearly realistic at all soon.
Do I think human space travel is feasible or even necessary at least at this point in time? No, not by a long shot. Machines can do a better job and will probably always be able to do it better if technology keeps advancing. Machines don't need air, water, food, living space, and that's some of the stuff needed just to keep us alive in an hostile environment, all resources can be instead focused on the mission itself.
I think that people tend to forget that we don't just happen live on planet Earth, we where born by it, molded by it :)
If we'd evolved anywhere else then that place would probably be by far the best possible habitat for us too.
Although If we could somehow get rid of the human body, just take a brain, equip it with a neural interface of some kind and put it in a water tank ...