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The death rate for manned space missions is absurdly high. At the same time, robotics, AI, and remote control technology have all made incredible progress. Unma

The death rate for manned space missions is absurdly high. At the same time, robotics, AI, and remote control technology have all made incredible progress. Unmanned missions are much cheaper. So, an unmanned program is a greater bang for the buck, and a greater bang per death. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_accidents_and_incidents http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_accidents_and_incidents. Let's say China sent people to Mars tomorrow. What could they learn about Mars that we couldn't learn by sending our robots there, similarly equipped? Manned space missions are now almost purely about bragging rights; the first person to do X in space was from nation Y. Who cares? It's just propaganda.

mquander 17y ago
Well, I care about propaganda; manned space missions are really cool, and they get people excited about science and technology. We throw most of our budget away anyway on defense, which is certainly not doing anyone any good; if we can't politically agree on anything useful to do with it, it would be nice to at least spend it on something cool, instead.
radu_floricica 17y ago
Unmanned missions are not only safer, but a lot cheaper. It's sending human habitats to the moon and back compared to sending a package one-way. I'd be very exited to see the moon as a testbed for robotic technologies. With little effort we could make a moon base before anybody even goes there. Or useful stuff, like a telescope. You have cheap energy, lots of space, some building materials and time. Could be a lot worse.
stcredzero 17y ago
Mars has a compellingly high potential for colonization. It's the only place in the solar System one can cheaply grow food, other than Earth. Its lower gravity well gives it an insurmountable advantage in access to off-planet resources, and it has water-driven geologic processes that have probably created exploitable ore deposits. Mars will be to the 21st and 22nd centuries what N. America was to the last four. The short-sighted will ask why we'd ever want to go there. It will take some form of "irrationality" to overcome the short-tern economic myopia. If it's Chinese national pride that opens the door, so be it. They're no worse than the Pilgrims.

mquander 17y ago

Well, I care about propaganda; manned space missions are really cool, and they get people excited about science and technology. We throw most of our budget away anyway on defense, which is certainly not doing anyone any good; if we can't politically agree on anything useful to do with it, it would be nice to at least spend it on something cool, instead.

radu_floricica 17y ago

Unmanned missions are not only safer, but a lot cheaper. It's sending human habitats to the moon and back compared to sending a package one-way. I'd be very exited to see the moon as a testbed for robotic technologies. With little effort we could make a moon base before anybody even goes there. Or useful stuff, like a telescope. You have cheap energy, lots of space, some building materials and time. Could be a lot worse.

stcredzero 17y ago

Mars has a compellingly high potential for colonization. It's the only place in the solar System one can cheaply grow food, other than Earth. Its lower gravity well gives it an insurmountable advantage in access to off-planet resources, and it has water-driven geologic processes that have probably created exploitable ore deposits. Mars will be to the 21st and 22nd centuries what N. America was to the last four. The short-sighted will ask why we'd ever want to go there. It will take some form of "irrationality" to overcome the short-tern economic myopia. If it's Chinese national pride that opens the door, so be it. They're no worse than the Pilgrims.