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That's not clear at all. Part of the reason why these robots are not very capable are very small mass budget and inability to iterate often, both due to high co
by balfirevic 7y ago
That's not clear at all. Part of the reason why these robots are not very capable are very small mass budget and inability to iterate often, both due to high cost of shipping stuff to Mars. Under those restrictions, humans are not getting to Mars at all.
When those restrictions are relaxed enough to contemplate sending humans to Mars, the robots will become much more capable too.
Disclaimer: I'd still love to see humans on Mars because it's exciting as hell!
- logicallee 7y ago> Part of the reason why these robots are not very capable are very small mass budget "The InSight lander weighs 794 pounds (360 kilograms)" https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/faq/ https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/faq/
- balfirevic 7y agoExactly?
- khafra 7y agoAre you implying that 794lbs is substantially heavier than a human, plus supplies for over a year, plus the extra delta-v to lift the human and half those supplies back up off Mars?
- DerekL 7y agoFor comparison, the Apollo Lunar Module had a launch mass of 15,200 kg.
- kraemahz 7y agoThe robots can be iterated on Earth and the environments aren't much different. The problem here is NASA. NASA is a politicized bureaucracy that has its hands tied behind its back. It cannot afford to take risks (both from a budget point of view and a politics point of view; failed missions are a wound to national pride). It cannot afford to hire the best and brightest because government payroll levels can't match industry wages. NASA is mired in old engineering superstition and has wrapped all progress in procedures that make it impossible to iterate quickly. They've made hardware and software decisions produced for them by niche industries that charge 10-20x consumer prices for inferior hardware that is certified by NASA standards. NASA is not the organization that made it to the Moon anymore.