The best article I've seen so far about the lack of a reasonable justification for human space travel has shown up in an unlikely place. The New Atlas website is devoted to exhibiting the latest technical gadgetry.  It is an entertaining resource if you just want an overview of what new tech toys are on the market.  And yet...

The New Atlas article by David Szondy, Humans in space: Are astronauts obsolete?, provides a thorough history of Space Travel, its sky-high costs, and the fundamental reasons why including human crews is a dead end.