Manned Space Flight Vs Robotics

Robotics Will Only Leave Man on Earth.

Since man came to be, he has always explored what was over the next mountain. Now that we have covered all four corners of the Earth, we now look up. Man has only touched the surface on space travel. We are beginning to discover, what it has to offer us, from the discovery of distant galaxies to medical breakthroughs. Man need to be present for these accomplishments not a robot. Man has always looked to the stars since the dawn of time. Now that we have the means to break the bonds of gravity, we are beginning to explore the last frontier. Manned space travel is not a luxury but a necessity. We are just beginning to understand the universe that we live in. This is why manned space exploration is crucial to our development as humans vs. robotics. I will go over the scientific benefits as well as our need to explore.

We are only beginning to learn what space has to offer us. Medical breakthroughs that can only be done in space are promising, and they are teaching us new things. The mining of asteroids, moon, and planets will produce new and already known resources. We recently just found two new planets in our solar system and we will want to explore them. We are only beginning to scratch the surface of this last frontier.

Robotics has been a crucial part of most of our discoveries. However these are just the scouts providing to us valuable information. Man will always need to travel to space, its our need to explore the unknown to find other intelligent life and to colonize beyond our own solar system. It not a race for countries or individuals it’s for the benefit of all humanity. We have so much to learn and explore, and for humanity this can’t be ignored. It has always been in our nature to explore beyond the next mountain or into the next solar system. Man will need to colonize beyond our own solar system. Earth is not forever eventually our Sun will die and before this happens Earth will be swallowed by the Sun. To insure our survival as Humans we need to travel beyond Earth. To establish colonies, and to discover new life forms and civilizations.

The problem with robotics is that a robot is always going to need a human to tell it what to do. Even with advancements in artificial intelligence a robot still needs guidance from a man on Earth. We send robots into space only because man has not achieved the means to get to the destination. Robots can be built cheaper and smaller but don’t have the capability to go beyond their design. So if a robot is designed to test and study soil samples it can only do this. Robots are designed with systems that allow it to make small decisions on its own like avoiding collusions with obstacles in its path. However a robot can’t see the difference in value as a human could between a sample of quartz and a diamond. (Ellis) Man has a brain has a sense of feeling that a robot doesn’t a man can react quickly to a dangerous situation. If a robot gets in trouble man back on Earth has to redirect it if its not already to late. With the many successes robotics have had its also had many failures. Many missions with robots worth millions of dollars have failed from communication problems to a failure on the robot of some type. The robot does not have the will to save its self as the men did of the Apollo 13 mission.

Manned exploration does have some problems however. As we have only begun to venture into space we have to overcome some issues. The biggest problem is onboard life support systems to sustain man while he is in space. We will need airtight compartments to house them in for long periods of time. As for longer missions this is extremely difficult to accomplish. This along with many other systems makes it expensive and difficult to launch. Even then it can take years to arrive at the destination with conventional propulsion systems which still rely heavily on a sling shot method from Earths gravity and other planetary bodies.

To further our space exploration we are going to need advancements on all fronts of space exploration. We need new designs of manned space vehicles. As well as the need for new types of propulsion systems such as Ion engine, or nuclear propulsion drive. We need advancements in equipment for travel on Mars along with vehicles to transport us safely around the surface. Habitation pods for humans to reside in while we are on the planet, and to conduct experiments. Man needs to be there to aid the robots in constructing these many things. A robot can’t solely do this alone. There is the need for a shielding system for protecting against cosmic radiation, which in a trip to Mars astronauts would be exposed to the equivalent of 25,000 chest x-rays. (Williams) We must recycle waste, and reuse it for grow able foods. These foods could aide in the