Comments on: the Romanticist astronaut

By: Justina Dears

Justina Dears — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:15:51 +0000

This is not something that we will translate for you. We will not explain it to you. Not out of spite, but because it is something that you can only understand if you are one of us. You are welcome to join us. Otherwise, leave us alone.

By: Steven Den Beste

Steven Den Beste — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:22:13 +0000

I am not saying, and have never said, “never ever send humans there”. What I am saying is “Wait until it makes sense, and it doesn’t make sense now.”

Not because we have bigger fish to fry, but because it’s really the best way to explore and gather data right now.

By: fledgling otaku

fledgling otaku — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:34:11 +0000

i disagree, as you might expect – humans and only humans can do exploration, robots and only robots should be used for data collection. At some point, you need a thinking, reasoning human mind out there, not to run experiments but to actually get beyond the data and see whats there. For example we can send increasingly sophisticated rovers to Mars, but only a human team will be able to test the thesis that we can live there, by trying it – and seeing what goes wrong, and finding solutions accordingly (or, maybe even dying). Its teh difference between the petri dish and in vivo, its the difference between theoreticians and experimentalists. A robot is just a probe; all you get back is information. A human brings back experience. Thats not just romanticism but also supreme pragmatism.

meanwhihle there arre those who argue yes someday we should go Out There but not today. today we have bigger fish to fry, etc. But theres a serious problem with that thnking, in that it is always true. The space race and moon shot took place during the Cold War and Vietnam; arguably those were more important things and the tens of billions spent on it would have bought N more tanks or M more missiles etc. And yet, using technology that is today 40 years obsolete, they did it anyway. We can and shoudl do better, and todays challenges are no greater than theirs were.

By: Steven Den Beste

Steven Den Beste — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 05:32:38 +0000

Oh, I understand that urge entirely. I also think it’s unwise.

There’s a place in science and engineering for romance, but romance should’t dominate over practicality. There may come a time when it makes sense to use humans for exploration, but for the time being machines are the right answer.