The Moon Landing and Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon are forever going to be commemorated as one of the greatest days in the United States’ history. The presence of man on the moon gave America great power during the Cold War and set them up as leaders in science. But with the increasing rise in robotic technology, the question of whether the continuation of humans in space exploration is necessary or even important, or if it would be smarter, safer, and overall more cost-efficient and cheaper to conduct space travel missions solely with robots, rovers, and other technology. Man, however, has proven to have a wider range of skills and problem-solving abilities than robots ever could, and in order to eventually inhabit planets other
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During the Apollo 17 mission, an unforeseen problem arose with one of the rovers that caused for some further complications in the mission (Spudis 272). The astronauts were able to fix the problem with their creative problem solving. While robots could be programmed to also fix that very problem and many others like it, who is to say another, random problem would not cause an equally disrupting problem? It is highly unlikely, in fact nearly impossible, for all problems to be accounted for, and not every problem can be solved for by computation alone. As a result, humans would be able to do a much better job of problem solving than the robotic machines. Robots are made with specific goals in mind, whereas humans have a more diverse skill sets. Additionally, as Bill Nye points out in the interview panel with Phil Plait regarding the James Webb Space Telescope and other space travel topics, the Soviet Union was technically the first country on Earth to bring sediment and rocks back from the moon. Yet not too many people payed too much attention or got too excited about this fact. It was not until America sent humans to the moon that the general public cared and payed great attention (JamesRandiFoundation). With a human on the moon, the mission had more publicity and therefore more intrigue in their scientific …show more content…
One of the biggest reasons for space exploration is to understand and determine if there is the possibility of future habitation on other planets in our solar system. This would mean sending humans to space in the future. However, if we do intend on sending humans further in space than just the moon (for example, sending them to Mars), we need to continuously keep sending humans into space on smaller missions to observe the gravitational effects and health of the astronauts to make sure the longer missions are indeed possible (Crawford 95). Without a continuation of sending humans to space on missions, NASA and other space travel and exploration agencies will be unclear as to if sending humans further into space is safe or if it will be harmful to
During the Apollo 17 mission, an unforeseen problem arose with one of the rovers that caused for some further complications in the mission (Spudis 272). The astronauts were able to fix the problem with their creative problem solving. While robots could be programmed to also fix that very problem and many others like it, who is to say another, random problem would not cause an equally disrupting problem? It is highly unlikely, in fact nearly impossible, for all problems to be accounted for, and not every problem can be solved for by computation alone. As a result, humans would be able to do a much better job of problem solving than the robotic machines. Robots are made with specific goals in mind, whereas humans have a more diverse skill sets. Additionally, as Bill Nye points out in the interview panel with Phil Plait regarding the James Webb Space Telescope and other space travel topics, the Soviet Union was technically the first country on Earth to bring sediment and rocks back from the moon. Yet not too many people payed too much attention or got too excited about this fact. It was not until America sent humans to the moon that the general public cared and payed great attention (JamesRandiFoundation). With a human on the moon, the mission had more publicity and therefore more intrigue in their scientific …show more content…
One of the biggest reasons for space exploration is to understand and determine if there is the possibility of future habitation on other planets in our solar system. This would mean sending humans to space in the future. However, if we do intend on sending humans further in space than just the moon (for example, sending them to Mars), we need to continuously keep sending humans into space on smaller missions to observe the gravitational effects and health of the astronauts to make sure the longer missions are indeed possible (Crawford 95). Without a continuation of sending humans to space on missions, NASA and other space travel and exploration agencies will be unclear as to if sending humans further into space is safe or if it will be harmful to