In article ,
Bob Noel wrote:

In article ,
Ron Garret wrote:

All these things could be done for a lot less money without the/a space
station.

how?

The materials and imaging work could all be done with unmanned
spacecraft.

Of course it could. But for a lot less money?

The way to think of this is that very few scientific experiments or
engineering tests are done anymore using human manipulations, human
observations, or directly human-operated equipment -- EVEN ON EARTH.

Essentially all experimental equipment these days in most any field you
want to name is computer operated or controlled (the experimenters are
at keyboards); the samples are loaded or otherwise manipulated by
mechanical elements (i.e., robotic manipulators); measurements are
taken by sensors or cameras (which are immensely more capable, accurate,
and reliable than any human observer); and the data is captured,
recorded. and transmitted electronically (which means it can be
immensely detailed, permanent, and subject to repeated and ever more
detailed examination by multiple experimenters simultaneously) -- EVEN
IN TERRESTRIAL LABORATORIES.

Given this, in essentially any field you can name there's no need, and
it makes no sense, to incur the immense extra difficulties of putting
live human experimenters into space with the experimental apparatus used
there. It's just a dumb and wasteful thing to do.