How much do do we need humans in space? How much do we want them there? Astronauts are the embodiment of human imagination and engineering. Their efforts shed light on the possibilities and problems posed by traveling beyond our nurturing Earth. Their presence on the moon or on other objects in the solar system could imply that the countries or entities sending them there have ownership rights. Astronauts promote understanding of the universe and inspire young people towards careers in science.
However, when it comes to exploration, our robots can do better than astronauts at a much lower cost and without risk to human life. This claim, once a prediction for the future, has become a reality today, and robotic explorers will continue to become more capable than ever, where the human body is not.
Fifty years ago, when the first geologist on the moon suddenly noticed a strange orange soil (possibly the remnants of previously unsuspected volcanic activity), no one could claim that a Auto insurance can perform this feat. Today, we have placed a semi-autonomous rover on Mars, one of a continuing set of orbiters and landers, with cameras and other instruments that probe the Martian soil, with the ability to find your way around obstacles like no other aircraft could before.
Since Apollo 17 left the moon in 1972, astronauts have traveled no farther than low Earth orbit. In the field, the astronauts’ greatest achievement to date has been their five repair missions to the Hubble Space Telescope, first saving the giant instrument from uselessness and then extend its life by decades by offering upgraded cameras and other systems. (Astronauts were able to get to Hubble just because the Space Shuttle, which launched it, couldn’t get any farther than Earth, which produces all kinds of radiation and interfering light.) Each of these missions. costs about a billion dollars in today’s money. Likewise, the cost of a telescope to replace Hubble is about a billion dollars; One estimate placed the cost of five repair missions equal to the cost of building seven replacement telescopes.
Today, astrophysicists have managed to send all their new space observatories to a distance four times farther than the moon, where the James Webb Space Telescope is now preparing to study a series of cosmic objects. Our robotic explorers have visited all of the Sun’s planets (including that old planet Pluto), as well as two comets and an asteroid, keeping data confidential. giants of them and their moons, most notably Jupiter’s Europa and Saturn’s Enceladus, where oceans lie beneath an icy crust that could harbor exotic life forms. Future missions from the United States, European Space Agency, China, Japan, India and Russia will only increase the capabilities of our robotic messengers and the scientific importance of these discoveries. their destruction. Each of these missions costs much less than a single trip sending humans – something that will in any case remain impossible over the next few decades, for any face-saving destination. moon and Mars.
In 2020, NASA unveiled the achievements titled “20 breakthroughs from 20 years of science to the International Space Station.” Seventeen of them handle processes that robots can perform, such as launching small satellites, detecting cosmic particles, using microgravity conditions to develop drugs and study flames, and 3-D printing in space. The other three deal with muscle atrophy and bone loss, growing food or identifying bacteria in space – things that are important to humans in that environment, but hardly a reason to send them. arrive there.
