Human Vs Robotic Space Exploration

Scientific Capability.” (Tennessean) People today are not as excited about going to other places in space. Human space travel has been stunted by recent political changes in America. With that, the people that actually want to go to other places in space mainly want to see humans go somewhere new. Some people want other things to go in place of humans. “Unlike robots, only people have the intelligence and expert knowledge needed to unravel these mysteries.” (Mindell) If humans don’t go to other places in the solar system, this takes away the experience and awe of knowing that people can go to amazing places like the moon and Mars. While I think robots and technology should be used in exploration of space. I think it’s important to keep the human element involved directly. So people can see that nothing is quite impossible.

As humans, we are born with a natural desire to learn and discover. With space exploration, we are able to do just that. In an online essay called “Is Space Exploration Worth the Cost”, Dr. Joan Vernikos,

To go to space, we have to buy everything our president owns 76 times ($230 billion dollars). Going to space would cost so much money, and that money can be used here on Earth. Also, there are many unknowns and health issues in the barren space of space. We should NOT go to Mars, it is a stupid decision.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is one of the leading organizations in space technology and research. In the past 60 years, NASA has sent numerous satellites, telescopes and crew modules into space. Despite drawbacks in launch failures and lack of funding, NASA continues to focus on its mission in space exploration and technological advancement. One of NASA’s projects is to explore deep space, in which entails a manned missions to Mars, exploration of the asteroid belt, and beyond. With these goals in mind, NASA has engineered new rocketry and even created a program to better allocate costs of such conquests. With these new advancements, NASA has created a new age of how space travel is carried out.

It is not true that human space travel is cheaper in any sense; life support systems, places to sleep and work, manual control systems all take up room, and most importantly, cost fuel. However, when it comes to planetary exploration, humans can get the job done better. They adapt to the situations they’re put into. A robot can only do everything it was told it was supposed to do, but programmer bound to the Earth will only think to program so many things, even if they are very thorough. Robots movements encompass a narrow set of navigable terrains whereas a human with mobility equipment can explore much further to garner samples or collect data (Crawford). A human can also think on their feet, which is essential in many mission scenarios. Far from the earth, where communication is severely limited by the distances involved, robots lag the humans watching. Events that occur for only a few minutes, like storms and novel hazards like rockslides or avalanches, may be completely missed by a rover and can even compromise the mission. When delay inhibits data collection and the safety of crucial components, this is where on-site humans can shine. Specifically, Crawford (2010) outlines five areas where human travel is necessary, which for brevity has been condensed into four. The focus is mainly on why humans are essential for these types of missions.

American citizens have to pay taxes and some of that money is going towards space exploration. With a 12.7 trillion national debt and high unemployment in the United States, Americans simply aren’t willing to invest in human spaceflight right now (Naeye). America is not in a financially stable place and people feel the money should be used to do more useful things such as funding schools and repairing roads. However, American citizens are only having to pay 33 dollars a year to fund these programs (Life’s Little Mysteries Staff). Also, exploring space is very useful because exploring space has helped scientists learn many facts about all the planets, suns, and moons in the solar system plus about the other systems out

It is impossible to stimulate our economy or to find new things in space without a space effort. The space exploration has only begun and it has only been happening for four decades so why stop something that only has truly begun.

Many of the advancements we see in society today are due to the improvements we made during The Space Race in the 1960’s. Throughout this decade, The Space Race influenced many Americans. All of their tax money went to the research and making of the space shuttles. Also, The Space Race drove NASA to create more technology and since we won, it puts the US in the front of space exploration. In addition, NASA has put up satellites which are constantly beneficial to us.

Three main clusters that are developed under this idea of space exploration is the benefits that are gained, ethical code and what it means with regard to the future of the human race. In this paper I will talk about what major projects are being worked on and who will benefit from these. This will also include what laws of space are and ethical code. This will also identify the differing viewpoints on space exploration and whether the big picture is worth the small steps being taken as to advancements in space technology and sciences.

NASA and ESA have been the main factors of developing space ships that will reduce the factors of failure or risk of the mission. Technology is not the greatest problem itself, space agencies probably have enough technology to go to Mars, considering that our current cell phones have more technology more than Apollo 13 did. The challenge itself is to identify every risk and every step with its details and consequences. We always have to remember that before we can run, we have to walk, and before we can explore the space, we have to leave our planet and be confident about our surroundings. There are some pretty big gaps in our abilities, including the fact that we can't efficiently store the necessary fuel long enough for a Mars trip, more fuel means more weight, and more weight means more fuel to operate. We also don't yet have a vehicle capable of landing people on the Martian surface, and we aren't entirely sure what it will take to keep them alive once there. Sure fuel is not the only thing that human needs if they lived went to

In the end, there are a myriad of problems that face space exploration. Some of them are small

Nevertheless, If NASA were to cut back on sending humans and instead send robots, they could save bundles of cash, and possibly, in some cases, lives (Etzioni, Amitai). Because of the vast expanses of space and the mystery that it contains, along with the action-packed movies made about space that captivate America even beyond their opening weekends, such as Star Wars, BattleStar Galactica, the humorous Space Balls, etc, and the simple fear of not knowing what, or who, is or is not out there, every person has some amount of curiosity in them in regard to the dark skies surrounding our earth. It is simply human nature to want to discover the unknown (Boucher, Marc p.2).

The author, Gregg Easterbrook (2011), has identified that the NASA resources are not being routed efficiently. "We’re throwing money at the wrong stuff". First, the "International Space Station" seems to be history 's most expensive mission and it is an advance space-telescope project. There are other projects that could be more inspirational such as sending people to Mars. Even though it is technically possible, it is surpassingly expensive at the moment. If there were an affordable way to reach orbit, it might open countless business opportunities in space. The reason Mars and the space business are out of reach is due the high cost of propelling weight into orbit. As an illustration, a mission to Mars could easily reach up to $ 1 trillion. The author argues that not because at the moment it’s not clear that a fundamentally new form of space propulsion can be invented, which represent an important challenge, does not mean NASA shouldn’t endeavor. Since the shuttle program began, excessive effort has been directed to maintain subsidies to contractors and congressional districts in comparison to the emphasis have been placed on seeking new ideas. According to the author, it is possible to restructure NASA’s budget, divert $1 or $2 billion a year from funding for manned space travel to propulsion research, and reducing Astronaut to the minimal level in order to free up the money needed. Alleging that any grand future in space will require a

As humans, we always push to explore for new discoveries, it is in our blood to explore and push scientific boundaries. Space exploration has allowed us to expand our technology, foster a curiosity in humans, discover new worlds, and most importantly push even further to discover life in a new planet. With the advancement of new technology and innovators, there has been a significant discussion whether sending humans with the support of robots is the most efficient method. However, there are great arguments made that sending exclusively robots on space exploration is the best strategy. There is

While using robots is the cheaper route to go sending humans actually has certain advantages over sending robots into space. For example, humans don't have to wait react to their surroundings because they're waiting on commands to be sent from earth. There are those that think it will be extremely difficult to continue learning more about the solar system if the only focus is on trying to cut cost by only sending robots out into space. Humans and robot should continue working hand in hand because without the use of robots, we really wouldn't know the layout and dangers of the places we're sending