Humans in Space

Leo F. Buscaqlia, an American guru and advocate of the power of love, once said “The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn and feel and change and grow and love and live.” His message is that if you never set a goal, take a risk, and try to accomplish something, you can never gain anything. The same message applies to human space travel. If we never try to send humans into space again, we will never know what we are missing. There are too many opportunities that we could miss out on by keeping our astronauts home. Therefore, we need to send humans into space. There are several reasons why humans should continue to explore space. For starters, robots are no replacement for humans. Next, there is an enormous amount of information and resources that we could only gather by sending humans into space. Finally, exploration is necessary in order for history to continue to live. If history cannot grow, neither can the human species. So, not letting humans explore space is not an option.

To start, robots are no replacement for humans. Thomas Billings of the institute of Telerobotic Space Development agrees. He states " Nothing can replace a pair of eyes, hands, or the human brain" (Opalko, 10). He means that there is no robot that can replace a real human. Humans can gather more information, appreciate space, and quickly react during an emergency. There is no possible way that robots can gain as much information as humans. To begin with, the terrain on other planets is rough and difficult to navigate on(Spudis and Zubrin, 21). Only humans would be able to decide where the best samples could be found and where the best tests could be taken, and then be able to go there. Also, there is only so much that we can learn from pictures, samples, and test results that robots send back. We need to know what space truly looks like and feels like. This can only be discovered by experiencing it all first hand. Also, as previously stated, only humans can appreciate space (Opalko, 10). Robots can not understand and enjoy the beautiful landscapes and the thrill of being in space. Only humans can do that. At a young age, many children begin to dream of someday being an astronaut, traveling in space, and walking on Mars. They do not dream of sitting in front of a computer monitor, looking at pictures sent back by robots. Finally, humans can react quickly and think on their feet. Robots have to wait for instructions every time they reach an obstacle. Humans, however, can react as soon as a problem arises. For example, one of the antennae on the space probe Galileo became stuck while it was in space. Engineers spent two years sending instructions to the craft, but they were never able to free the antennae. Because of this, less information was gathered than expected (Opalko, 10). If humans had been there, they could have fixed it immediately and gained a lot of knowledge. Therefore, humans should continues to explore space because robots are a poor replacement.

Next, there are many things that we can gain by sending humans into space. First, we as humans need to learn how to become a multi-planet species. Second, there are elements in space that we could use to make fuel. Also, we could set up bases in space. Finally, We could harvest many resources from space. If the world that we live on ever becomes unsuitable for us, what are we going to do? We need to explore other planets to see if we could possibly live there when the time comes. Research shows that there may have once been life on Mars. We need to look into this further to see if we could someday live there. In order to do this, we would need to send humans out to explore Mars. We will only learn by trying. " To become a multi-planet species, we must master the skills of extracting local resources, build our capability to journey and explore in hostile regions, and create new reservoirs of human culture and experience" (Spudis, 25). This means that in order to live on multiply planets, we must work to build our skills in gathering resources, journeying to new far-off and possibly dangerous places, and gathering information. The only way that we can acquire these skills is by striving for them. Also, there are many elements in space that could be used to make fuel (Spudis and Zubrin, 21). The amount of fuel we could make in space would cover much of he extra fuel it takes to get humans into space. For example, there are large amounts of frozen water at the poles of the Moon. When broken down into hydrogen and oxygen, water can be used to make rocket fuel. The amount of water in the Moon's poles could be used to create enough fuel for one space shuttle launch every day for almost 40 years (Spudis