It seems like a situation similar to that in Stephen Baxter\'s 'Voyage': the solar system is explored by people, but we don\'t know much about it because funding for viking, voyager, pioneer was diverted into a manned landing on mars. I don\'t know if a modern version of that would be good or bad. I think putting people in space is a much bigger PR opportunity for NASA than robotic probes, but all the science that would be lost...