http://www.sciencealert.com/nasa-s-messenger-spacecraft-will-soon-crash-into-the-surface-of-mercury?perpetual=yes&limitstart=1

 Are a rule, humanity is pretty d*mn stubborn.  If we want to do a thing, we do a thing.  If we don’t want to do a thing, we don’t do a thing.  There are a ton of “reasons” we might do or not do, ranging from corporate greed to altruistic intentions and higher-order awareness down to plain “I donwanna”.

So in hand, right now, in everyday life, we have what seem to be two primary camps for space exploration.

Number One is the Meat Plan.  The Big Sexxy, right?  Strap a rocket to the back of a test pilot and fire them off into the great unknown.  WOOOOOOOHOOOOOO!  Take THAT Universe!  It’s a fabulous vision, and there is some logic to it.  People are useful.  We can do many many things given enough time and materials, so sending humans + materials (or at least instructions) does make some sense (outside of the potential death/madness thing).  BUT it is infinitely harder to do because people die and rockets explode.

BUT, Plan Two is Robots all the way down.  Remotely Operated Vehicles, Rovers, Probes, essentially they are all extensions of humanity, just without the meat part.  Human designed, human built, while they are not as adaptable, they don’t die quite the same way as we do, they are easier to power, easier to support emotionally (just don’t look at their Twitter feeds), and they are the current functional plan.  Since they are designed by humans they are, as our ambassadors, going to reflect human preconceptions and frailties.

My humble opinion is that both plans are going to work.  The “Meat” plan is going to take longer and be harder to execute.  The “Robot” plan is already underway.  But once we get the technologies and developments from BOTH plans working together?  Watch out Universe.  Here we come….