Robotic missions won't make us a multiplanetary society though (neither does the space shuttle...). I think that's important too.

I am 100% certain it will be robots that construct the first habitats for any future Mars or Moon inhabitants. As much as I want an interplanetary future for humanity, the case for concentrating on robotic exploration is just too strong to not have them be the primary focus of development for now.

Not to the exclusion of humanity, mind you. But to do the work to get to the point where we can confidently send people on a mission that isn't either temporary or suicide.

Sure, robots are important, but it's not robots circling around Jupiter that we need to build. We're already pretty good at that. There doesn't seem to be any serious money for developing robots that help with the construction of habitats for humans.

Not directly for those purposes, sure.

But it isn't much of a skip to see future derivatives of mil-sponsored research like Boston Dynamic's Atlas and Big Dog being put to use as workers in hostile environments, both here on Earth and in space. The civilian space program would never have gotten as far as it has without massive transfer from the military spending on boosters, after all, so the direction of transfer has precedent.

A lot of us think that's a specious goal. Earth has oxygen, the food is good, there's decent nightlife. And all my stuff is here.

Luckily humanity has enough resources to pursue multiple goals simultaneously

Not this one. To create an outpost off-planet capable of sustaining human civilization at its current level in the event something happened to Earth would consume our entire economic output for many years, if it were even achievable.

Or it would consume a tiny fraction of our economic output for several generations while maybe also throwing off some sweet tech that is useful back here on Earth.

Do we have that long?

Who knows? Better get started sooner than later.

All your stuff is here, sure. What about your great-grandchildren?

I admire your optimism.

Could just as well be pessimism.

The congressional politics of the districts where the development of human space flight systems are a major employer are, unfortunately, a huge factor in NASA's budget earmarks.

Also known as the "Alabama Space Mafia".

Yanis Varoufakis, Greek Minister of Finance during the Greek debt crises, has suggested that the (somewhat hidden) redistribution of money from the wealthy parts of USA to the poorer part via federal government spending is part of what allows the poorer parts of the USA not have the same level of problems that Greece (and Spain?) has with respect to Germany in the EU. The EU budget is about 1% of European GDP while US federal budget is abut 20% of USA GDP.