[FPSPACE] Dual Orion capsules studied for manned asteroid missions

[David Portree]

David:

 

With all due respect, 50 years of spaceflight history do not support this view. 

 

The last time humans explored space in the sense of going to new places was 1972. Apollo wasn't dispatched to the moon because of some higher calling; it happened because of a perfect storm of political interests and events that is unlikely to repeat. 

 

Exploration in and of itself has never been widely seen as a sufficient justification for big-ticket space projects, whether human or robotic, though it has come close for some robotic missions (in particular, the faster-better-cheaper missions of the 1990s).

 

The world has moved on since Apollo. Robots were not very capable in 1972. Now they have demonstated that they are quite capable, and we have gained a great deal of experience in using them effectively. Humans, on the other hand - if anything, what we've learned from a half-century of research on the ground and in orbit suggests that they are not as effective at space exploration as we assumed in 1972. We have spadework to do to see if that's really true. 

 

Cost is the final nail in this coffin. Assuming no ulterior motive (e.g.; display technological prowess by beating Chinese in race to put a man on Earth-approaching asteroid -insert alphanumeric designation here-), then no one is going to fund a piloted asteroid mission that costs 10-100 times more than an equivalent robotic mission.

 

I'm all for piloted exploration, but not all piloted exploration makes sense. Right now, the only piloted exploration that can be justified on the basis on what we know - rather than what we hope - is lunar exploration, though only at a cost that will not permit it. I wish that this were not true.

 

Finally, robotic exploration is piloted exploration. The robot/human dichotomy is simply false. In the office next to mine, people tell the arm-mounted experiments and tools on the Mars Exploration Rovers what to do, wait a day, and look at the results. Every day I hear the telecon; it's a team of explorers doing fieldwork on Mars. They've been exploring in this way for more than five years, and at a cost much less than a single Shuttle flight. That is the reality. 


David S. F. Portree

dsfportree at hotmail.com
dportree at usgs.gov
 
http://robotexplorers.blogspot.com/
http://beyondapollo.blogspot.com/
 
http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/About/People/DavidPortree/
 



 


From: DavidLRickman at aol.com
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:24:01 -0400
To: fpspace at friends-partners.org
Subject: Re: [FPSPACE] Dual Orion capsules studied for manned asteroid missions


Dave
 
We are explorers. It is what we as a species do best. Coins, stamp, and statues commemorate historical explorers. It may be more cost effective to send satellites, but we are human, and we will continue to send men on explorations.  
 
That is how it is. That is how it will continue to be. That is reality.
 
Best Regards,
 
David L. Rickman




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