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