Food And Space: A Case Study: Robotic Space Travel

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William Olsen ESS 102, Section AH Dr. Erika Harnett 10/09/2017 Robotic Space Travel Space, one of the great mysteries of the world. Many have dreamed of exploring the frontier that is space but only few have. It’s been 48 years since the last human set foot on another body in space, why would this be when it only took 8 years to send the first humans to the moon. Before we answer the question of why it’s been so long since the last time a human set foot on another planet we must answer the following: would it be more effective to send humans and robots to space or just robots? Sending humans and robots is inefficient because food and water must also be sent, which will take a great deal of weight, additionally humans are subject more directly to the dangerous frontier that is space. Sending just robots is the superior solution because of the following reasons: we can already send robots into space, robots can be controlled remotely by humans, robots can’t have their decisions influenced by emotions, and sending robots is much more cost effective. Food and water are required for humans to survive. While …show more content…

Not only will rockets be constructed differently, they also don’t have to carry food or water -- reducing weight and cost as mentioned earlier. NASA has estimated that sending a manned mission to Mars would cost at minimum billions of dollars (Mann - Humans VS Robots, 11). Rather than sending a manned mission, multiple robotic missions could be sent in place allowing for even faster data collection. For quite some time space funding has been a constant; from 2012 to about 2017 NASA was projected to receive around 17.7 billion per year in funding which makes robotic space exploration a much more fiscal solution (Mann - Almost Being There, 13). Cost has been one of the largest if not the largest problem with space travel, as discussed by the Space Panel from TAM 2011 in Las

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