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> Does anyone know what the utility of sending humans in space is, beyond what you can do with probes? Looks to me you're trying to express your disapproval of
by credit_guy 3y ago
> Does anyone know what the utility of sending humans in space is, beyond what you can do with probes?
Looks to me you're trying to express your disapproval of human space exploration, but you are veiling it as a question. We are friends here on HN, no need for rhetorical detours.
> I can’t imagine a situation where you need a human hand in outer space and not a mechanical one.
I suppose you imagine that robots can do everything that humans can do. Maybe in theory, but in practice it's not even close.
- kjkjadksj 3y agoOn earth I agree with your second paragraph, but not in space. Humans can’t do anything and everything in space. They are limited to what is possible through the tooling, and in an emergency they aren’t going to be operating off the cuff but following carefully rehearsed emergency procedures anyway. I just haven’t heard an argument that its worth the risk to life having some utility inherent to a human in space, that you cant otherwise get with some sort of remotely operated device. Unfortunately a lot of the decisions with the apollo mission wasn’t necessary purely scientific, it was designed to achieve military and political objectives too, so its hard to say if having astronauts were strictly necessary. Or if they were necessary with the technology of the 1960s, its hard to say if that would continue to be true today given advances in both robotics and computing.