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This is wrong. The fact is we take our humans back, but leave our robots in space. It's harder and more expensive to prepare a return voyage, and the robots can
by adrusi 11y ago
This is wrong. The fact is we take our humans back, but leave our robots in space. It's harder and more expensive to prepare a return voyage, and the robots can ultimately spend more time in space and for some applications that means it will be more effective at gathering data.
- jerf 11y ago"Anywhere we can afford to put a human", and I'll remind you, that's under the new, wildly cheaper domain of space flight, not the current one. If only a robot is affordable at all, there's no debate about which is "better". Clearly that is not the argument being made, though, because then there's no point in even repeating the line about robots being more cost effective. If space flight is cheap, you're better off sending a far more capable human than a robot, because if you're going to spend $3million for a robot or $5million for a human, the human is going to be more than 40% more effective than a robot. It's a totally different story than when the difference is $12billion or $500billion.