Valheim explains the importance of continued manned flights into space in an original way: if the dinosaurs had a space program they would not have become extinct
Astronaut Wollheim: The robots can only help
Almost 54 years after the first man - Yuri Gagarin - left the Earth's warm atmosphere, humanity has reached impressive achievements: more than 500 people have already flown into space, many of them for periods of many months. On the other hand, only a few hundred people have gone into space, a dozen of them have set foot on the moon and a few more have come close to it, but the great majority of them have remained in an orbit very close to the earth - only a few hundred kilometers. We currently leave the challenging tasks mainly to spacecraft and robotic vehicles that are being perfected and improved, like the all-terrain vehicles currently active on the surface of Mars, with great success. "The robotic vehicles are still not flexible enough. It takes days to program them for a simple task," says astronaut Rex Walheim from the American space agency. "They will go and improve over time, but they are only our vanguard force. They can find the landing sites for us, and prepare various activities, to help our activities when we get there. Sometimes people also need another person to identify with, to see other people who have done it. This is also important."
The robot is jealous
Four years ago, a humanoid (albeit legless) robot - Robonaut Two, joined the crew of the International Space Station, which is supposed to assist the crew of the station in various space missions. Wollheim, who flew three times in space shuttles, and participated in the assembly of the station, got to see the robot in action on his last flight - which was also the last mission of a space shuttle, 3.5 years ago. To the question of whether such robots will be able to replace the astronauts on the station in the future, he replies "Maybe one day. These robots still only do very simple tasks. For complex and important tasks, which a human astronaut can do in seconds, it still takes a long time to program the robot. We are still studying the field, in order to train the robots to help the astronauts and free up their time for tasks that only a human can do." At the time, the Robonaut was also designed to perform "space walks" - that is, repair and maintenance tasks outside the station, which is a complex and dangerous operation for humans. However, Wollheim, who logged long hours in spacewalks, points out that so far the robot has not been allowed to leave the station. "It seems to me that he is a little jealous of us", he adds with a smile.
A haven for humanity
Wollheim is a guest at the Ilan Ramon International Space Conference, of the Ministry of Science and the Fisher Institute, where today (Thursday) he will speak about the renewal of manned space flights in the US - both by private companies and by NASA - and the future of Man in space. Ahead of his lecture, we asked him where he thinks we can find man in 50 years. "I hope that by then there will already be a permanent manned colony on Mars," says Wollheim. "I hope that the first steps will be taken to send people there, and to establish the infrastructure, so that we have a permanent presence there, just as today there is a permanent presence at the space station, which is a kind of our outpost. Hope that in 50 years humanity will already be multi-planetary, and not limited to one planet". And why is it so important to settle on Mars? "So that we have a coast of insurance in the event of any disaster until the end of the year," Wollheim replies, recalling the old saying. "If the dinosaurs had a space program, it is possible that today they would not have become extinct."
Looking even further into the future, does Wollheim think we could colonize the entire solar system? Maybe even in other solar systems? "Reaching other solar systems is probably unrealistic, because of the vast distances," says Wollheim. "I hope we can reach some places in the inner parts of the solar system, and maybe even the moons of some of the more distant planets. There is no doubt that it is a very long process, but it is impossible to achieve these goals if you don't start."
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The very ability to allow human life in a flight of several years. And human life on the moon, will ensure scientific breakthroughs.
Lorem Ipsum, I agree with you completely. In my opinion, it is possible to accomplish many more missions and research in the field of space and star exploration using robotic missions (autonomous, and those controlled remotely) than planning manned missions that are much more complex and much more expensive, it's a real waste of time to let the robots do the work.
(And they will only go and improve, according to Ray Kurzweil)
skeptic
I agree with you. It seems to me that it makes more sense to settle the moon first. It's hard enough... We are not in a situation where, 50 years ago, it was possible to harness tens of thousands of people for such a task..
The space station is one of humanity's great achievements, although there was no great enthusiasm for it,
Every day research is carried out that advances human knowledge both about our planet and the study of what was in space,
Even in the Apollo flights, after the initial enthusiasm, it was treated as routine, and the moon was a kind of obvious goal,
But a culture that can exist in space and provides itself with everything and does not need the sun or a planet to exist is the culture that has the best chance of survival, it is a culture that can move to the edges of the solar system and later also continue to move for thousands of years in space even beyond the solar system, if such a culture wants it can also
to colonize other planets, but there is no reason that for them it would be the most important thing, they are something secondary,
From a scientific point of view, robots today really take a lot of time to program their goals and it is even more complicated
In the great distances of space, even in the solar system, it takes hours until it moves in only one direction,
But in the future it is likely that the automatic capabilities of the robots will reach close to human capabilities and in all likelihood will surpass it,
But even today, despite the robots' shortcomings, their advantages are clear and they are a zero amount of resources for NGOs
The amount of resources needed to keep a person in space so that for many tasks only for the economic reason
A robot is better (probe satellites, etc.) even tasks that take decades, even there robots have a big advantage,
But there are areas like the space station where humans have a clear advantage for the time being and there is also human survival
And of life in general, it is clear that a culture that lives in space and spreads into the galaxy has a survival advantage
It is one of the things that helped man survive his curiosity to find new places to learn new things,
Any culture that confines itself to one niche is doomed to extinction at some point.
Yes? Until the guy succeeds in planning, organizing and financing a manned expedition to Jupiter, it will be possible to carry out 50 robotic missions that will plow the solar system, dig in Europe, return samples to the Earth from Titan, Europa, Callisto, the rings that surround Saturn, Jupiter and the asteroid belt, etc., and more will remain A surplus sufficient to finance a manned expedition to Mars.
And it will also take less time.