Posted on 05/22/2009 7:49:41 PM PDT by KevinDavis
Lets try it again.. I still stand that Humans can do a superior job than robots when it comes to space exploration.
Maybe so, but robots are better at followinglowinglowinging instructructructDESTRUCT!
I imagine these discussions get heated? Okay, I will weigh in.
I believe that there is intrinsic value in the human presence. I believe in the human need to explore, and let’s face it...sitting at a computer and seeing what a robot sees is nice, but a human is indispensable.
Robots do have a place. But I think the human presence is vital.
Because I’m a Human...:)
Me too. But just barely...
Think this landing will get wx-canx too. Tomorrow not a good wx day at KSC.
LOL...
Do you have a link to back that up...
I heartily agree Kevin. I appreciate seeing that on the forum. Thank you.
I still stand that Humans can do a superior job than robots when it comes to space exploration.I wonder if a robot wrote *that* sentence. ;')
Robots are ok, but they miss one element.. The ability to think outside of the box which I hope it stays that way..
There are far to many problems to be overcome to send humans on extended missions. The main problem is cosmic radiation, not to mention length of mission, micrometeorites, weight concerns (supplies) and such.
The robotics of today and even the foreseeable future will never compare to human exploration. But I belive that robots are the way to go.
Mankind may set foot on Mars, and that is a huculean feat to say the least. But no way can humans do much more than that for at least 50 years. Robots not only can, but ARE doing these types of things far more cheaply, and with less risk.
I think you are wrong we will overcome dangers in less than 50 years.. I think we will be on Mars in the 2020’s..
Does that include Mars?
I believe you push the envelope as hard as you can, and that’s how you shine. Sending remote toys around the solar system is nice, but it’s no substitute for the real deal.
IMO< the remotes thrill the Democrats. They didn’t want us spending any money on space from the get-go, and seeing the Babel effect (confusion) instilled in the space program, must have really pleased them.
I’ll bet it didn’t surpass their glee about us calling our space station, the International Space Station though.
We're on the verge of our entire space program being cancelled by the Democrats. If ACORN keeps Ø in power for two terms, we won't even have a space program by the time the next president takes office in 2017.
By 2020, Congress might get around to debating how to restart the space program.
Of course, there may be nowhere to go. China and Russia (and probably Iran and even Botswana) will have staked claims to all the other real estate in our solar system.
Though I do hope your prediction is the correct one.
Don't let NOMAD hear you say that.
Yes, because then there are no heroes.
or VeeGer.
Right now my fear is that China will overtake us in space..
Exactly.
Kevin, I’m glad to see that one other person on the planet actually realizes the significance of them doing so.
Has nobody in government these days ever heard of the high ground?
Issue after issues after issue, and our leaders haven’t a clue.
“I think we will be on Mars in the 2020’s..”
hahahahahahahah.
It’s been almost 40 years since we were on the moon but we will be on Mars in 20?
Death wish.
Not anymore.. A lot of people on the right and the left no longer looks ahead in what we do now will effect us 10 or 20 years down the road. We pound on our chest say this nation is number 1, but it takes more then chest pounding it takes work to do it..
I'll be content if Free Americans (you know, the guys Kennedy asked to get us to the moon) are on Earth in the 2020's.
I don’t think we’ll get to Mars for at least another fifty years. But when we do I think it should be a manned mission. And I’ve never bought the argument that those dollars could be better spent. As W. David Woods wrote in his How Apollo Flew To The Moon: “It is not in the nature of our species to resolve every problem before doing something creative, otherwise we would never have had impressionist art, theories of relativity or Egyptian pyramids.” Just so. And you know, I still marvel at Apollo. It strains credulity to think we’ve actually put twelve men on the moon. This is staggering. I was reading about the first stage of the Saturn V moon rocket. Its combined five F-1 engines consumed fifteen tons (yes, 30,000 lbs.) of propellants per second! From 0 to 6,000 mph in under three minutes. Imagine it.
The landing will probably take place at Edwards AFB at 10:47am ET or 12:25pm ET. There is no rain in the forecast for Edwards.
Thanks, that is the obvious question when viewing this thread... looking at live NASA on the tv, I can’t stop looking at her hair... ain’t zero gravity great?
Landing ground tracks. Possible sonic booms for the south central US.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts125/news/landing.html
Humans superior... 
to us bots?
What are you... 
smoking, Kevin?
Though I do have to admit I could not do my job in space... 
without Leela, Fry and the Professor.
They buy... 
the beer!
What is next... 
on your anti-bot agenda?
You'll be saying humans dance... 
better than us robos???
Kevin, psst? Don't tell Bendy... 
but I agree with you!
just delete “live” from my last post. Duh.
Amen, brother!
I agree, but getting them there and then back alive is the hard part, and expensive too.
There is definitely a place and purpose for unmanned spacecraft and unmanned space exploration.
We may be totally broke in 5 months.
Entirely new vehicles and propulsion systems would be required to get man to Mars AND back. The scale-up factor will be immense.
I’m not saying it cant be done, just that there is nothing currently on the drawing board thats technologically achievable. So on that basis I doubt that man will be on Mars 20 years from now.
I am not sure if we will be on Mars by 2020, but I am nearly certain that the Chinese will be. I am not sure if any of you remember this, but when the Apollo project was at its peak, the tentative plans called for the first manned Mars trip to occur around 2000. That was the schedule they used making 2001 A Space odyssey, with regularly scheduled trips to a lunar colony, plans for a mars trip, with the capability to travel to the orbit of Jupiter, when plot reasons required it. At the time no one thought that this schedule was unrealistic, only the monolith part of the story was considered fantastic. Although the self aware computer was rather a bridge too far.
My family thinks I am crazy.... like “that crazy old man who gets up at 4:30 to watch a space shuttle landing”. Of course, I think it is insane to stay up until midnight to watch the latest tivo’ed (is that a word) episode of “Desperate Housewives”, so it balances out.
I see the first landing has been waved off. I am assuming the 2nd is at KSC also. Sure I will hear on NASA TV soon.
Saw a schedule y-day that said the landings scheduled for tomorrow are at Edwards and White Sands Missile Range. I was at WSMR and out on Northrup Strip when John Young last brought a shuttle to WSMR. Trying to remember when that was without researching it, seem to remember 1980 or so. Now I have to look it up....LOL
Noticed that the orbit of Atlantis is a tight one, the northern extreme being not much higher than Tennessee or so. I am used the the big sweeping orbits going from Greenland to Australia.
Enjoying the discussion on robots Vs. Humans in space. Where robots excel (IMHO) is in patience. I can not imagine a human spending a week examining and studying a pebble on Mars, but the Mars rover Spirit did exactly that a couple of years ago.
.....Bob
nor veeger.
Rainfall from [Sunday] May 17 to Friday [May 22]:'Huge Disaster', Gov. Crist declares state of emergency
Bunnell: 28 inches
Daytona Beach: 19.9 inches
DeLand: 12.4 inches
Holly Hill: 29.5 inches
New Smyrna Beach: 19.3 inches
Ormond Beach: 25.8 inches
Wave off for today :(
Wave off for today. No landing attempt until Sunday.
Da da.... wx canx. Sunday it is.
They aren't going to land at Edwards when there is a chance they can make KSC tomorrow. However...wx tomorrow at KSC is iffy at best.
China will never surpass us in the space game. What ever they do, we have already done.....many times over. We have also landed 12 men on the moon, the last time 37 years ago. Unless they beat us to Mars, they will be repeating what we, and to a certain extent, the Soviets/Russians already accomplished. They can study what Russia and the USA has already done and use it to accelerate their program and catch up faster. Use that, along with what Clinton sold them and their man in space program will bu with us in no time.
What a species-ist remark! ;-)
Button your shirt...show off...>:-}
There are too many problems with extended manned missions to justify any human travel beyond Earth’s orbit. Due to its lack of atmosphere, Mars will never be inhabitable. So what would be the point of going there to plant a flag and pick up some rocks? And distance, radiation, space debris, etc. dictate that we will never go past the asteroid belt.
Gosh! ZERO HUSSEIN does everything perfectly and finds fault with everyone else, soooooo can’t You launch him tomorrow morning for the Most Perfect Astronaut Mission to Mars or Pluto or something like that?? :-)
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