Do
We Really Need Humans to Explore Space?
Is it worth the time and expense to send humans into
space? This question has been debated for a long time, and continues to be
asked as robots grow more sophisticated. The central question is this: is there
any justifiable reason to sending men and women to other planets, or is
exploration best left to the machines?
Robin McKie may have an answer, and that answer is
robots. In his 2014 article on the subject, he lists many of the advantages of
unmanned space exploration. Some of these include:
Cost.
It
is far less expensive to send a robot into space than a human, because a
machine does not require food, environmental control, or basic safety measures.
Robots can travel lighter, which means they can travel farther at a lower cost
(McKie, 2014).
Range.
McKie
(2014) also points out that robots can travel farther and work in far harsher
environments than humans. As a result, they have explored environments like
Saturn’s moons, where robot probes discovered hydrocarbon lakes.
Sophistication.
McKie
(2014) also states that exploration robots have become very sophisticated,
evolving far beyond their primitive ancestors of two decades ago. These days, a
robot can execute just about all the science experiments that in years past
could only have been done by humans.
From a practical perspective, I believe that robots
are the better choice. I think that exploration should be an exclusive domain
of machines. My biggest reason for saying this is the fact that supporters of
manned exploration seem to rely more on poetry than data.
Noted astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson said this of
manned spaceflight: “humans are
endowed with the ability to make serendipitous discoveries that arise from a
lifetime of experience” (Tyson, 2012). Those are beautiful words, but they
don’t hold much weight when justifying manned spaceflight. Human beings can
make “serendipitous discoveries” just as easily by sifting through the data
sent back by the explorer machines.
Cosmologist Stephen
Hawking echoed those statements: according to him, robotic missions “may
provide more scientific information, but they don’t catch the public’s
imagination in the same way…” (McKie, 2014). Again, we have the appeal to
heart, without much hard data to back it up.
This pattern repeats
itself often when the manned vs. unmanned debate pops up. Proponents of
unmanned flight say that robots provide much more information than human
astronauts, and at a fraction of the cost. Supporters of human flight point out
that putting a man on Mars instead of just another robot would serve as an
inspiration to all people.
Both camps make great points. The images of Neil Armstrong on the moon inspired untold
numbers of young men and women to pursue science as a career. And landing a man
(or woman) on Mars would, in my opinion, have a similar effect.
If push comes to shove,
however, then I fall squarely into the robots-only camp. Robots are growing
more sophisticated by the day, and computing power continues to accelerate.
Decades ago, it would have made more sense to send people into space, due to
the limits in computer power and robot design at the time. Now, however,
putting human beings on Mars (and beyond) feels like a vanity project. It would
be great to see human footprints on Mars one day, but not while those
footprints come with a hundred billion-dollar price tag (Wall, 2012). There is
no way to justify spending that kind of money when a robot can do the same
mission at a fraction of the cost.
In my heart, I’m for
manned space exploration. In my head, however, I know that manned exploration no
longer makes sense. Space exploration is best left to the machines. Manned
flight has lots of poetic and philosophical support, but unmanned exploration has
numbers. And, in this case, the numbers win.
References
McKie, R. (2014). Astronauts
lift our spirits. But can we afford to send humans into space?
Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/dec/07/can-we-afford-to-send-
humans-into-space
Tyson, N.D. (2012). Neil deGrasse Tyson: only humans can truly explore space. Retrieved
from
http://nationalpost.com/opinion/neil-degrasse-tyson-only-humans-can-truly-explore-space
Wall, M. (2012). Should
NASA ditch manned missions to Mars? Retrieved from
https://www.space.com/16918-nasa-mars-human-spaceflight-goals.html
