Human Interplanetary Missions? Its time to purge the delusion.

There is a thread on slashdot.org (NASA Safety Panel Finds Concerns With the Journey To Mars) today about a NASA panel’s considerations of a manned [what better word is there for this? humanned?] mission to Mars. Then there is a lot of discussion the the threads about this.

One person raised a good point by saying that humans are simply not made for space, therefore what is the point of wasting resources and risking human life when we can use advanced instrumentation instead?

In fact, I think that if not already in the present, then in the very close future the level of technology of instrumentation is going to be so clearly superior that the idea of sending humans into space would just seem ridiculous. The eyes, the ears, the instruments capable of performing tasks and obtaining data are simply going to exceed by far that of humans.

And, as this commentor noted, this seems to be a kind of delusion that is leftover from years or generations of science fiction. But, in thinking seriously and objectively about space exploration, I think its important to purge this delusion right now because every time it is even considered to put humans into space costs a lot of money.

Re:Paper rockets (Score:1)
by IceAgeComing (636874) Alter Relationship on 2016.01.14 11:14 (#51302117)

The problem is not a particular president or a particular Congress. It’s the fact that space missions have, somehow, become politicized.

A central question within the political debate is: “why send people on long-term missions at all?” Astronauts and companies building capsules for people don’t want us thinking too hard about that question.

If we want to explore outer worlds to learn more about them, the logical and financially viable answer is to send out autonomous robots engineered for outer space. People are simply not designed to be outside of the Earth’s atmosphere or in zero G, or away from an incredibly complex biosphere that gives us food, water, and microorganisms that help us live.

It’s time we realize that every space drama we have seen on TV is fiction, created in 1G gravity.

Its time to wake up and understand that human beings belong on Earth and there is absolutely no point in them going into space, ever. This goes for things like interplanetary missions, missions to the moon, or asteroid mining. Perhaps some argument can be made for keeping humans in low Earth orbit on research stations but even that must be called into question considering – once again – the enormous expenditure of resources to do so.