Dear MEL Topic Readers,
Future of space travel: Could robots really replace human astronauts?
On April 12, 1961, a then-Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, orbited the Earth just once, and parachuted to the ground. On July 21, 1969, two US astronauts stepped onto the Moon. They spent 21 hours and 36 minutes there jumping around the landing module, shooting videos, and collecting samples. Both missions were more symbolic than scientific. On November 2, 2000, the first crew arrived to live on the International Space Station (ISS) to operate the crewed space laboratory for scientific research, including studies of dark matter and crystal growth for medicine. On August 6, 2012, NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity landed on Mars to investigate the Martian climate and geology, environmental conditions for microbial life, and habitability for human exploration. While robotic spacecraft have reached all planets and many asteroids in our solar system and recently the Sun, humans have only orbited the Earth and landed on the Moon since Gagarin. Actually, robots and machines can conduct scientific research in distant and inhospitable locations far more easily and economically than humans as they don’t require oxygen, hydration, nutrients, toilet, or sleep even though they aren’t as fast or flexible as humans. So why do we still try to send humans to the Moon again and to Mars? In 203X, the first humans landed on Mars after a nine-month space journey…
Read the article and learn what humans and robots can do in space travel.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy7keddnj31o
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