Sending astronauts to Mars would be stupid, astronaut says

Sending astronauts to Mars would be stupid, astronaut says

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Toaster

Original Poster:

2,940 posts

199 months

Monday 24th December 2018
quotequote all
Whilst I believe that its money not well spent on sending man to mars I do agree with Bill Andres view as he says he is a "big supporter" of the "remarkable" unmanned programmes, "mainly because they're much cheaper". But he says the public support simply isn't there to fund vastly more expensive human missions. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-463...

RobDickinson

31,343 posts

260 months

Monday 24th December 2018
quotequote all
Merry Christmas Toaster hope Santa brings you something nice.

grumbledoak

31,762 posts

239 months

Monday 24th December 2018
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I agree. Sending humans either to the Moon or Mars makes no sense. They need food, water, and air. All of which we have to carry with us and back. And we need fuel to land on rocks without atmosphere, and more to get back off. All in it makes those trips stupendously expensive picnics! And for what? The bragging rights are still up for grabs on Mars, but that seems to be all.

We should concentrate on a permanent stations at a Lagrange point. Build our ability to live and work in space.

V8LM

5,237 posts

215 months

Monday 24th December 2018
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The “upmass” issue of manned flight and colonisation of Mars provides many challenges that facing and overcoming will have huge benefits here on Earth. The EuCROPIS satellite that was launched earlier this month on a Falcon 9 is studying the growing of tomatoes in zero and in lunar gravity. On board is the power pack that is using synthetic biology to process waste (artificial urine in this case) into fertiliser.

How about on demand pharmaceutical production? Or real-time personalised medicine? Or stopping bone loss? Or ways to treat, or stop, stroke. Or pulmonary embolisms? Or .... https://tinyurl.com/yde8wp7u

The common goal of sustaining life in the extreme environment for extended time will help man survive on Earth.

“We came all this way to explore the moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth.” – William Anders.

Merry Christmas everyone.

RobDickinson

31,343 posts

260 months

Monday 24th December 2018
quotequote all
Long term we need to get humans out into the solar system.

Robots are fine explorers but very slow, all the science done with the robots on Mars would have been done in weeks with humans.

Eric Mc

122,699 posts

271 months

Monday 24th December 2018
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Toaster is our Science Forum Grinch.

Happy Christmas Mr T.

Toaster

Original Poster:

2,940 posts

199 months

Monday 24th December 2018
quotequote all
RobDickinson said:
Long term we need to get humans out into the solar system.

Robots are fine explorers but very slow, all the science done with the robots on Mars would have been done in weeks with humans.
We probably do not "need" to get humans out in to the solar system, its a human argument that we "need" to do this, All life has a beginning and an end which is the same for any civilisation. I am sure you haven't forgotten that once man goes to a planet and stays there for any period of time the chance of a return to earth is small and from an evolution generation perspective they won't be human.

Why do you think Humans could rush the experiments that robots do, and have you considered why a robot may take time over carrying out a series of experiments?

Toaster

Original Poster:

2,940 posts

199 months

Monday 24th December 2018
quotequote all
Happy Christmas and New Year too all on the Science forum.

RobDickinson

31,343 posts

260 months

Monday 24th December 2018
quotequote all
Toaster said:
e probably do not "need" to get humans out in to the solar system, its a human argument that we "need" to do this, All life has a beginning and an end which is the same for any civilisation. I am sure you haven't forgotten that once man goes to a planet and stays there for any period of time the chance of a return to earth is small and from an evolution generation perspective they won't be human.

Why do you think Humans could rush the experiments that robots do, and have you considered why a robot may take time over carrying out a series of experiments?
I talked to one of the scientists that designed curiosity that is what they said. The robot is slow and limited and at a huge distance and time lag plus has a very limited energy budget.

Robots are useful but slow and incredibly limited for now

Eric Mc

122,699 posts

271 months

Monday 24th December 2018
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I expect Britain will nominate Torvill and Dean as their first Mars bound astronauts.

markiii

3,793 posts

200 months

Monday 24th December 2018
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nah we should send toaster

Eric Mc

122,699 posts

271 months

Monday 24th December 2018
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markiii said:
nah we should send toaster
I know he sometimes skates on thin ice - so he should be safe on that crater/rink.

MitchT

16,161 posts

215 months

Monday 24th December 2018
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This ice that's on Mars... is it actual ice, as in frozen water, or it it frozen something else?

Beati Dogu

9,133 posts

145 months

Tuesday 25th December 2018
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It's frozen yogurt.

funkyrobot

18,789 posts

234 months

Tuesday 25th December 2018
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Beati Dogu said:
It's frozen yogurt.

Beati Dogu

9,133 posts

145 months

Tuesday 25th December 2018
quotequote all
Ok, ok, yes it's water ice. The Korolev crater is 51 miles in diameter and they believe the ice is up to 1.25 miles thick.

So there's a lot of potential water in there.


https://www.rt.com/news/447139-mars-water-ice-imag...

funkyrobot

18,789 posts

234 months

Tuesday 25th December 2018
quotequote all
Beati Dogu said:
Ok, ok, yes it's water ice. The Korolev crater is 51 miles in diameter and they believe the ice is up to 1.25 miles thick.

So there's a lot of potential water in there.


https://www.rt.com/news/447139-mars-water-ice-imag...
And the odd sprinkling of yogurt.

Eric Mc

122,699 posts

271 months

Tuesday 25th December 2018
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Full of Martian microbes - yummy.

grumbledoak

31,762 posts

239 months

Wednesday 26th December 2018
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ash73 said:
If they invested in a mission like this and had a breakthrough just think of the potential to reuse the same technology on Earth to produce hydrogen from water to fuel cars.
That doesn't solve a problem we have. We already know how to do it. Even if we made it cheaper, Hydrogen remains a relatively dangerous way to transport energy for personal transport.

Toaster

Original Poster:

2,940 posts

199 months

Wednesday 26th December 2018
quotequote all
RobDickinson said:
I talked to one of the scientists that designed curiosity that is what they said. The robot is slow and limited and at a huge distance and time lag plus has a very limited energy budget.

Robots are useful but slow and incredibly limited for now
Oh Dear, one scientist eh... OK so just think about what he said then in terms of the Human energy budget and in terms of human consumption and waste ! Down here in the real world companies are racing to put autonomous systems in place to replace humans due to costs. Yet one area we can use Robots efficiently and without replacing humans is space exploration. Time lag exists for humans and robots, humans are very frail mentally and physically Robots do not need entertainment or holidays etc etc

The Case for just using Robots to explore Mars remains a strong one