Needed: a change of focus

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kdavis007

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Needed: a change of focus<br />by Hans L.D.G. Starlife<br />Monday, November 7, 2005<br /><br />In his recent presentation of the Space Flag, Michael Huang refers to the never-ending humans versus robots debate: Man vs. Machine. (See “The Space Flag”, The Space Review, August 29, 2005.) Indeed, this is one of the absolute biggest and most persistent obstacles for humankind’s future expansion in space. Not only because of the “pro-robot” view, but the whole debate as such, even when human spaceflight is advocated!<br /><br />Why? Because this discussion always circles around the theme of doing science: which solution optimizes our scientific rewards, sending men or robots? Which solution is most cost efficient? Time after time, we are confronted with this question. That is in reality what the entire space debate has been about, since the end of the Cold War heydays. The shuttle, ISS, Mars missions, Hubble—you name the project—all big space debates boil down to this single issue.<br /><br />Recently, it was also highlighted in the report “United States Space Policy: Challenges and Opportunities”, by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, where they are not at all happy with the idea of going places like the Moon and Mars “just because they are there”. Even more recently, the debate surfaced in some newspaper editorials, which argued that because the shuttle and its tank still loses some bits and pieces, we should cancel human spaceflight all together—permanently—and only focus only on robotic missions!<br /><br />In the minds of people, the whole idea of spaceflight is strongly associated with science. Ask people in the streets what they are thinking when they hear the word “space”, or a university student when you say “space careers”. Certainly, they are not thinking about cooking or gardening! It’s all about achieving breakthroughs in science and engineering. And if it’s not, it’s probably not worth the money—ask your nearest politician!<br /><br />Even an energetic scien
 
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