Re: Why manned exploration of space?

On Aug 3, 12:55 pm, Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
<tausti...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
cryptoguy <treifam...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote innews:7b7b1c9c-0f0e-438a-860a-270a66294807@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
com:





On Aug 2, 3:12 pm, Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
<tausti...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Ken from Chicago" <kwicker1b_nos...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote
innews:LdGdnRRNua
SBUujXnZ2dnUVZ_g-dn...@xxxxxxxxxxxx:

"Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <seaw...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote
in messagenews:h545ro$7bo$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The major advantage of manned exploration is that (as an
example) the work done by two rovers over a period of years
could be done by a couple of men in suits in a few days. The
abilities of humans still vastly outstrip those of machines.

What complete and utter crap that statement is. No work done
over a few days could equal the research done over several
years by dint of the range time you make multiple
observations. A team of a thousand humans researching for a
month is going to be outweighed by continuous research spread
out over years of time. Time in and of itself reveals vast
amounts of information on a subject, be it the weather,
biological growth, even the amount of gold one can farm in an
MMO.

I've been following the MER rovers since they landed, relying
largely on the superb forums at UMSF
(http://unmannedspaceflight.com), which include some people on
the rover teams. The rovers have, in aggregate, covered about 15
miles so far. Opportunity alone has gone nearly 11. So, a
spacesuited geologist would probably take at least a few days to
visit all the sites (and remember, the two rovers are opposite
sides of the planet.)

Note that I say *visit*, not explore. Some of the tools the
rovers use take a long time to run, hours to days, and even
longer to interprete the results. Those interpretations feed
back into the 'what should we do next' question.

On the other hand, in the early 70s, forty of so years ago, the
lunar rovers we actually sent to and drove on the moon had a range
of about 40 miles, at up to 11 miles per hour. It would be suicidal
for a Mars rover to travel at such a speed, because there is a 40
minute+ round trip reaction time, where the driver of the lunar
rover was simply driving, and could thus a) apply his human
intelligence to the planning of the route - don't drive in to large
rocks or off of steep inclines - and b) react immediately to
unexpected obstacles.

So what can a human crewman do that robot can't? Travel 15 miles is
a lot less than 3 years. In fact, I think they *have*.

5 years actually; you haven't been paying attention. My point is that
(1) we can send a *lot* more unmanned probles than manned ones, and
(2) they can stay there much longer. This means that there is time to
analyze the earlier results and use them to guide work going forward.
This would not happen with a brief manned visit.

Driving fast to stuff is only useful if you know where you want to go.
If we did, we wouldn't be explorers, we'd be tourists.

pt
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Why manned exploration of space?
    ... The abilities of humans still vastly outstrip those ... The rovers have, in aggregate, covered ... range of about 40 miles, at up to 11 miles per hour. ... "Terry Austin: like the polio vaccine, ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)
  • Re: Why manned exploration of space?
    ... abilities of humans still vastly outstrip those of machines. ... I've been following the MER rovers since they landed, ... of about 40 miles, at up to 11 miles per hour. ... "Terry Austin: like the polio vaccine, ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)
  • Re: about that water on Mars...
    ... Mars' equatorial diameter is 4228 miles, ... And we've got two rovers. ... (Well, that's kinda pushing it. ...
    (sci.physics)
  • Re: about that water on Mars...
    ... Mars' equatorial diameter is 4228 miles, so the furthest ... And we've got two rovers. ...
    (sci.physics)
  • Re: Why manned exploration of space?
    ... The major advantage of manned exploration is that the ... current model rovers Just Can't DO. ... The amount of resources needed to send humans, say, to Mars, and back, could ... be used to send swarms of robots. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)