|
|
|
|
|
|
by the__alchemist
1773 days ago
|
|
|
Don't discount the value of unmanned missions. Canned primates are easy to relate to, but there's a lot we can accomplish with sensor suites. Carl Sagan, in his book Pale Blue Dot, has a relevant chapter called 'The Gift of Apollo". Manned missions are exciting to the public, and are valuable for this reason - but their design requirements are often at odds with scientific objectives. I think both types of exploration are important. In addition to stimulating culture and interest in space travel, manned missions lead to engineering breakthroughs. Both unmanned, and manned missions are important. Manned missions have stagnated, but unmanned is certainly not 'trapped within LEO' ! |
|
|
The main thing sensor suites can't do, though, and which manned missions are (were, would be) an ongoing proof of concept of, is colonizing space. If we don't want mankind to perish with this ball of mud in just a few billion years (at the very most), we gotta get out there. We, not just our "sensors".