First, it doesn’t have to be a manned mission. Maybe one day we will be able to do so but I still find the image feed of those space probes way more inspirational than listening to some scholar who has nothing new to say. Second, if space exploration is not about benefit to mankind then neither is anything else. The only people benefiting humanity are those who are providing food and shelter to others. That is what we need to survive, everything else is a luxury. One doesn’t even need religion to survive. Even THAT is a luxury! Last but not least, it is all perspective, buddy. I can choose to look at the positives or negative of anything. Let’s look at the funding space exploration gets vs what religious and political organizations get. Let’s compare what inventions have been brought forward from the space exploration research work. Let’s compare the charity work done by religious and political organizations and size it up against the funding they do get!