"Humans can travel where robots can't."
While I am very, very sympathetic to the idea of manned spaceflight, I wanted to point out that this statement about human vs. robot travel capabilities may be somewhat misleading.
Assuming that humans have sufficient food, water, atmosphere, the correct temperature range, and protection from ionizing radiation, they currently are more flexible and intelligent in their exploratory abilities than robots.
However, delivering human necessities across the Solar System is prohibitively expensive and technically difficult. Delivering one small robot across the Solar System is a vastly simpler problem.
So, in practical terms, the flexibility/cost ratio for human space exploration is still far too low, as compared with that same ratio for robots. I'm not saying that human space exploration is a bad idea -- I'm just saying that I'd like to see more of the Solar System explored while I'm still alive.
While I am very, very sympathetic to the idea of manned spaceflight, I wanted to point out that this statement about human vs. robot travel capabilities may be somewhat misleading.
Assuming that humans have sufficient food, water, atmosphere, the correct temperature range, and protection from ionizing radiation, they currently are more flexible and intelligent in their exploratory abilities than robots.
However, delivering human necessities across the Solar System is prohibitively expensive and technically difficult. Delivering one small robot across the Solar System is a vastly simpler problem.
So, in practical terms, the flexibility/cost ratio for human space exploration is still far too low, as compared with that same ratio for robots. I'm not saying that human space exploration is a bad idea -- I'm just saying that I'd like to see more of the Solar System explored while I'm still alive.
