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I am 100% certain it will be robots that construct the first habitats for any future Mars or Moon inhabitants. As much as I want an interplanetary future for h
by Baeocystin 9y ago
I am 100% certain it will be robots that construct the first habitats for any future Mars or Moon inhabitants. As much as I want an interplanetary future for humanity, the case for concentrating on robotic exploration is just too strong to not have them be the primary focus of development for now.
Not to the exclusion of humanity, mind you. But to do the work to get to the point where we can confidently send people on a mission that isn't either temporary or suicide.
- adrianN 9y agoSure, robots are important, but it's not robots circling around Jupiter that we need to build. We're already pretty good at that. There doesn't seem to be any serious money for developing robots that help with the construction of habitats for humans.
- Baeocystin 9y agoNot directly for those purposes, sure. But it isn't much of a skip to see future derivatives of mil-sponsored research like Boston Dynamic's Atlas and Big Dog being put to use as workers in hostile environments, both here on Earth and in space. The civilian space program would never have gotten as far as it has without massive transfer from the military spending on boosters, after all, so the direction of transfer has precedent.