Human & Robotic Spaceflight

While space exploration has been successful both with humans and robots, opinions about whether to continue one, the other, or both are divided. Some people advocate the continuation of human spaceflight, while others consider that robotic exploration will bear fruit in areas where humans cannot go. Such opinions were recently expressed by Michael D. Griffin, NASA administrator, and John Merchant, CEO of the robotics firm RPU Technology.

“I am an unabashed supporter of space exploration in general and of human space flight in particular. I believe that the human space flight program is in the long run possibly the most significant activity in which our nation is engaged. For what, today, do we recall renaissance Spain, King Ferdinand, and Queen Isabella? Unless one is a professional historian, the memory which is evoked is their sponsorship of Columbus in his voyages of discovery. For what, in five hundred years, will our era be recalled? We will never know, but I believe it will be for the Apollo lunar landings if for anything at all. And this is entirely appropriate. Human expansion into space is a continuation of the ancient human imperative to explore, to exploit, to settle new territory when and as it becomes possible to do so. This imperative will surely be satisfied, by others if not by us.” -Michael D. Griffin

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Griffin is a strong believer that human spaceflight is the most “significant activity” people can engage into and the only one that will be remembered a few centuries from now. He compares the Apollo program to the missions of discovery during the Renaissance and underlines that in 500 years from now the future generations will refer to the lunar landings in the same way we refer to Columbus’ landing in America. Griffin believes that humans are prone to explore and if the US will not do it, other people will. [1]

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"Putting more money into human spaceflight is going to be extremely unproductive. ...My position is that we shouldn’t give up on the human exploration of space, but we recognize that you can perform the human exploration of space by telepresence. ... we’ve already sent two rovers to Mars using early-stage telepresence to dig into the surface of Mars to look for signs of water. I very strongly feel that if we devoted a fraction of the resources that we’ve been devoting to manned spaceflight missions to telepresence, we could develop a capability so that humans on Earth could experience and function in a distant space environment like Mars as effectively as if they were actually there." -John Merchant

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By contrast, Merchant underlines that continuing to pay for human spaceflight would be a big loss. His belief is that robotic exploration can do what people do and even more, and therefore allocating at least some of the manned spaceflight funds to the robotic missions would allow exploration in hostile environments as if people were there, while remaining on Earth. Merchant exemplifies his beliefs with the successful mission of the Mars rovers able to explore the planet without humans. [2]

According to Launius and McCurdy, the prospect of NASA is that robots and humans should work together for further exploration of space. [3] This perspective seems to be right because it includes everybody’s opinion and it is a productive solution. While Griffin might remain disturbed that robots will still be sent to explore the solar system, and Merchant would still believe it is a waste of money to continue sending humans in space, continuing exploration with both sustains both military and civil space programs. [4]

One interesting idea brought up by Launius and McCurdy is that at the moment human capabilities still exceed those of the robots, but on the other hand robots are cheaper and if lost during the mission no human life is at risk. [5] From Griffin’s point of view, praising human capabilities in space would go hand in hand with his idea of human spaceflight as a necessity if we would like to be remembered by the future generation. In the same time, for Merchant, the fact that machines are cheaper and human risk-free would be just the right concept underlining his belief that robots deserve some of the human spaceflight’s funds so that they can do more than people.

One of the reasons for such different opinions may lay in the fact that individuals engaged in the humans vs. robots debates consider the two to be completely different things with separate visions. The idea advocated by Launius and McCurdy that humans and machines are not “separate entities” may come as a surprise for both Griffin and Merchant. Humans and robots do the same kind of work, while complementing each other rather than taking each other’s place. [6] Having both may be the best solution. While Griffin’s reaction to these arguments may still gravitated around finances and the waste of money invested in human space flight, Merchant’s reaction may also be that robots can do better in places where humans cannot go. Either way, the idea that Griffin and Merchant could pick from Robots in Space is that having humans or robots explorers does not need to be a debate, but rather cooperation.

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Notes:

[1] SpaceRef. Prepared Statement of Dr. Michael D. Griffin: "The Future of Human Space Flight". October 16, 2003. http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=10683 (Accessed November 8, 2011), para. 3.

[2] Berger, Eric. The case for sending robots, not humans, to Mars. August 19, 2009. http://blog.chron.com/sciguy/2009/08/the-case-for-sending-robots-not-humans-to-mars/ (Accessed November 8, 2011), para. 4-5.

[3] Launius, Roger D. and Howard E. McCurdy. Robots in Space. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008, 27.

[4] Ibid, 27.

[5] Ibid, 3.

[6] Ibid, 30.

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References

Berger, Eric. The case for sending robots, not humans, to Mars. August 19, 2009. http://blog.chron.com/sciguy/2009/08/the-case-for-sending-robots-not-humans-to-mars/ (Accessed November 8, 2011).

Launius, Roger D. and Howard E. McCurdy. Robots in Space. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.

SpaceRef. Prepared Statement of Dr. Michael D. Griffin: "The Future of Human Space Flight". October 16, 2003. http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=10683 (Accessed November 8, 2011).

Image source: http://www.airspacemag.com/space-exploration/Humans_vs_Robots.html