Louis Friedman opines in his new book, Human Spaceflight - From Mars to the Stars, that humans will become a multi-planet species by making it to Mars, but no farther. That is, humans will never travel beyond Mars. Some find this to be negative - an absolute statement of limits and thus of giving up. His job in the book is to prove the opposite... that humans will explore the universe, but via nanotechnology robotics, bio-molecular engineering, and artificial intelligence.
Tom Paine, NASA administrator at the height of the Apollo program, had a clear idea about the goal of human space exploration. It was the settlement of Mars. In fact, he hoped we would not find life on Mars so that we could more rapidly devote ourselves to bringing humans there. He wanted The Planetary Society, which Friedman co-founded with Carl Sagan and Bruce Murray, to make Martian settlement their vision and mission. While very supportive of human Mars exploration, the Society was skeptical about the question of settlement. They argued that humans do not know if settlement is possible or sensible. Humans may only explore with outposts and never really settle there (as in Antarctica or in the oceans of Earth). They maintained their scientific skepticism across decades even as NASA periodically considered ambitious plans for human missions to Mars.
But now Dr. Friedman has come to realize that Tom Paine was right.... settlement of Mars is the rationale for human spaceflight. He has also come to realize that Mars not only should be the next goal for humans in space but also is the ultimate and hence only goal, at least that which is physically possible as far as we know today.
But others say that in the future, humans will go much farther. see video and following comments.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/video/why-humans-won-t-go-beyond-mars/?WT.mc_id=SA_SP_20151116
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