Don't send a Robot to do a Man's job!

Exploration Feature Article

You can build my cars, fight my wars and warn me of danger (Will Robinson) but I’ll be the one exploring space if you don’t mind. Robotic technology has come a long way, so far in fact that the debate is raging over who (or what in this case) should be sent into space to explore the great vast unknown: man or machine?

One of the biggest supporters arguing for sending humans into space is world-renowned cosmologist from Cambridge University, Steven Hawking. Hawking not only believes we shouldn’t be sending a robot to do a man’s job but that we should be devoting a portion of the world’s finances toward the goal of getting off this planet. He is convinced that the survival of earth’s humanity for the next thousand years is contingent on us breaching the borders of our big blue orb and extending our horizons to other planets that we could potentially colonize. Hawking believes mankind will eventually destroy itself due to climate change or global virus and plans need to be in the works so we can deal with these inevitable global annihilators.

Hawking suggested that we start by establishing a base on the moon, one with a gravitational force in order to counter the bone loss issues associated with spending prolonged amounts of time in a low gravity environment. From there we could look at manned landings to Mars. These two ventures could be completed by 2025 and in so doing a new spirit of interest could be injected into the space program, much like President Kennedy spawned when he set the goal to travel to the moon. And not to be overly optimistic without establishing how this great undertaking could be funded Hawking set forth that if the world simply set aside one quarter of a percent of its gross domestic product we could begin the process toward other world colonization today.

Hawking is not alone in his support of human’s being used to explore the universe over robots. Jim Bell, an astronomer and planetary scientist at Cornell University, actually works as a researcher in the field of robotic space exploration. Bell advocates that although human astronaut missions have a hefty price tag and present a lot of risks they are absolutely critical to the success of the exploration program.

Hawking is not alone in his support of human’s being used to explore the universe over robots. Jim Bell, an astronomer and planetary scientist at Cornell University, actually works as a researcher in the field of robotic space exploration. Bell advocates that although human astronaut missions have a hefty price tag and present a lot of risks they are absolutely critical to the success of the exploration program.

I agree with Jim’s opinion because I believe once you remove the human element from the equation you tend to also remove a bit of the human interest. When the unmanned drones first came out they were cool to behold, and no one can argue that on the field of battle we would rather have a drone destroyed than an air force pilot in a jet. Yet, those places are hostile environments where you actually have an enemy who is striving to kill you. Don’t get me wrong space is no less a hostile environment. Wallace Fowler, of the University of Texas, said that if a spacecraft was hit with one blast of coronal radiation from a sun storm the dose would be lethal to whoever was on board. Risks exist and preparations need to be made in order to safeguard the lives of the men and women that will be going where no one has gone before. Yet it is in the going that we succeed. And if Apollo 13 showed us anything it was that we can overcome any obstacle when there is a human at the helm. Ingenuity and resourcefulness are purely human characteristics. These qualities can be applied to a robot indirectly when a human is on the other end controlling its actions hundreds of thousands of miles away but then only to a limited degree.

The last thing that I believe is worthy of mentioning is on the topic of first discoveries. When we set out to find new things and we don’t even know what it is that we may encounter we really need the full evaluation skills of a human being, not merely a camera and a robotic arm. A human has the ability to assess things on a level that even the most sophisticated machine will never be able to approach. Don’t we want that kind of scrutiny when we make first contact with a strange new world that we hope will be worthy of colonizing the earth’s population? The last thing we want to pin our hopes on is the assessment of a robot who tells us from a million miles away “come on in, the waters warm” only to find out on arrival that we were horribly misinformed. There are certain things that machines do very well and yet there are other undertakings where you don’t send a robot to do a man’s job. When it comes to exploring the universe I believe I would have to say, “R2-D2 and C3PO types need not apply.”

Special thanks to the Daily Galaxy for their informative posting from Casey Kazan on March 7, 2010 on the "future of space: manned vs robotic missions". To view the original article please click on the link: Daily Galaxy Article

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