Manned Space Flight is of Little Value
February 6, 2006
I’m
a space flight hound, and I used to be a manned space flight hound. In some ways I still am, but if you look at
the realities of the space environment rationally it becomes clear that the
manned space program is of very little value.
The space station is really neat, but it doesn’t return a lot of
science. Robots on the other hand like
the Mars rovers Spirit and
Sure
watching those three astronauts grab ahold of the Intelsat 603 was awesome, but for the money
it cost to grab that satellite we probably could have launched three backups. As romantic as the notion of humans in space
is it’s just not going to be a big thing for a long time. At least not until we have some better paths
to orbit (such as hyper-planes, balloons, or beanstalks). Human spaceflight such as that in the movie
“2001: A Space Odyssey” will not be with us for a very long time. I’d be surprised if we had a thousand people
off planet in 100 years.
I’m
all for it when it’s feasible, but for right now we get *SO* much more from unmanned missions that it just doesn’t make
sense to put humans in space. And don’t
even get me started on Bush’s plan to go to Mars. Why the hell would you drop all the way down
the Moon’s gravity well to get to Mars?
As
sad as it would be in many ways I think we should completely abandon manned
space flight. I know that will never
happen, but that’s my opinion.