So do we send astronauts to Mars and tell them they have to find water and food for themselves?
Again what is record for time spent in space for a human? and how long will a man be required to be in space to go to Mars? Seems what I always hear is that they hope to have those details figured out by launch time. On 01 Mar 2012, at 17:24, Dave Gary wrote:
As Egon Spengler said as he came out from under the secretarys desk in Ghostbusters print is dead, so too is manned space flight. To say the ISS is in space is stretching it. Until someone can come up with a propulsion system rivaling warp drive why should we bother? Successful robotic missions to Mars stand at about 50-50.
50-50 because there were not humans on board to improve the odds. An example being the Mars Polar Lander which crashed when the onboard computer "thought" the craft was on the ground and shut off the descent engines when it was still high in the Martian sky. Had a human been on board to monitor the engines real time that would not have happened.
Or one of the otherwise successful Viking Landers whose seismometer did not work because someone back on Earth had forgotten to to remove a locking pin before flight. Had a human been on board to remove the pin that would not have happened.
Or what about Mars Climate Orbiter? Someone back on Earth forgot the mission was using metric measures and inputted American units instead causing the craft to enter Mars orbit too low and it burned up. Had a human been on board and seen quite a ways out that the approach was going to be too steep that would not have happened.
Or the Soviet's Phobos 1 which was on its way to Mars when someone back on Earth accidentally commanded the craft to shut down and the craft was lost. Had a human been on board to make sure the computer was not shut off that would not have happened.
And even the recent Phobos-Grunt, lost in Earth orbit when the onboard computer failed to fire the engine that was to propel the craft out of Earth orbit and on to Mars. Had a human been on board to ignite the engine that would not have happened.
Those are just a few examples. I'm sure there are more.
Robotic exploration has it's very important place but no robot can do everything a human can. And, maybe just as important, no robot can be curious and wonder "What was that?". One of the current Mars rovers, following its programming, once drove right on past what later turned out to be a very interesting meteorite. Fortunately someone back on Earth later saw the meteorite in navigation images and wondered "What was that?" and had the rover team turn the rover around and go back for a better look.
I really like what the rovers have accomplished, but one of the folks on the MER team said a while back that all of the wonderful stuff the rovers have done over the past many *years* could be accomplished (and dare I add "exceeded") by a single human geologist on a go cart in a couple of *weeks*.
Nobody in their right mind (well, I would, but my minds not right) would undertake a mission after being told, Well, son, youve got a 50-50 chance of getting there. Gettin back, though, is an entirely different matter.
When the early Earth explorers left port on their sailing ships they knew they had a small chance of returning but they went anyway. And when others left to settle new places on the planet many had no intention of ever returning. While I'd prefer to return alive I'm sure there would be no shortage of volunteers willing to make a one way trip to live out their lives on Mars.
It's just that today NASA is so risk and PR adverse that they don't want to even consider one way trips or riskier odds. And that's why I'm glad to see private enterprise entering the space game. Those pioneers are willing to take the risks and possibly reap the big rewards.
Send the probes. Forget the men.
I hope you meant to say "humans". Otherwise I'll bet there are a number of "XX chromosomers" who might want to have a private talk with you out back. :)
patrick Speaking for myself and not any agency for whom I occasionally volunteer. _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy
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