What do you think is best and why: a human mission to Mars costing up to $1-trillion, many $1-billion robotic missions, or neither?
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M$3 Answers
Economy wise, we could greatly benefit from space exploration to "civil" industry technology transfer. Think about the robotic vehicles that are roaming Mars now - how efficient they are in harvesting (scarce) solar energy over there, and how efficiently they utilize every bit of energy they manage to get onboard.
Now, compare that with what we have here, on this planet, in terms of solar powered vehicles - we can barely manage to get few solar cars race through hot Australian desert! Why is that? For purely political reasons, bad thinking. There is nothing about space exploration, on one side, and the rest of human economic, technological activity, on the other, that prevents these areas from overlapping and supporting each other. How many more jobs would space exploration produce if the technologies were "disseminated" more quickly, and more readily, throughout the industries, wherever they can be utilized? We could have self-sufficient solar & wind powered households, from Nebraska to Alaska, before the new generation of our spacecraft reaches Mars!
Which brings me to the second point, the main objection to human mission - time. The biggest obstacle is psychology, the enormous psychological and emotional pressure, when you have small number of individuals confined within very limited space over very long periods of time. Just to give you an idea, a return trip to Mars, plus the stay there, would take between two and two and a half years. It may not sound long, but people who plan such missions are well aware of this problem.
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M$
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M$
Thanks for the response. It's interesting to compare your view with the comment from @nushka. I wonder how much impact this kind of spending could actually have on the broader economy?
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M$
Interesting take. Thanks! I'm guessing your sentiment might not be uncommon these days.
Well, that trillion is not going to mars as it is, it will be used to buy things to build stuff. Things that people make and get payed for.
Sure there are prioritary areas but research is always an investment in the future.
Good point–I hadn't really thought about the impact this type of program could have as a sort of "economic stimulus" package.
