not ticked

not ticked

I found this piece after following a link from Curmudgeon's Corner. Jason Verheyden figured I would be ticked that he is

starting to wonder what real use Pathfinder or any of these other robotic missions have played.

I can understand perfectly the desire to go into space. Hell, I want to go myself. If humans don't go into space, then the robotic missions become unnecessary - I mean, what's the point of sending robot after robot if one isn't planning on sending people too?

I don't think that this needs to be an either/or proposition. Any humans sent into space absolutely rely on robotics. The Canadarms on the space shuttles and the Canadarm 2 on the international budget buster (errm... space station) are indispensable tools; without them those pieces of space hardware would be even bigger pieces of junk.

Robots have one main advantage over human beings in space exploration: they are expendable. They don't need heavy life support systems. Nations don't mourn and bring their space programs to a screeching halt for two years when a robot dies. They don't need to come back to earth, so they don't need to have enough fuel to come back. They can find out things like the composition of the atmosphere and soil of say, Mars, so that we can tell how much necessary stuff can be made in situ, so we know what to send on subsequent manned missions. The could do other things like set up a base for eventual human habitation.

And that is the key: robotic missions must be followed up by subsequent manned missions. It isn't enough to send robots hither and yon, while forever consigning ourselves to the earth/moon gravity well. Robots can lay the groundwork, but people have to go too.

I wouldn't count on NASA being in any hurry to send people anywhere though. They have spent the last thirty years going around in circles, and (notwithstanding Bush's Moon Mars and Beyond plan) I can't see that changing anytime soon. Burt Rutan showed us that private companies can "do space". It is high time that the private sector stated sending up its own robots, followed by and concurrent with its own manned missions.