the human body will encounter complications in low and zero gravity
ftl will never happen
space stations are a scam that rich tech ceo's promise
mars cannot be terraformed
life is probably unexceptional and we will never make contact with others
you will all die on earth
space is cool but fuck if we dont have bigger priorities atm
That goes for a huge chunk of academic work, though. Tying science related stuff too closely to its application is a great way to give people an excuse to kill off whatever isn't "practical" enough. You already see it with the focus on STEM.
Space mining is probably pretty critical to avoiding ecosocialism on the cheap for most people in the world (and that's the best outcome without those mineral resources)