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From: Slocum@HI-MULTICS.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: Scuttle the Shuttle?
Message-ID: <860208164138.380195@HI-MULTICS.ARPA>
Date: Sat, 8-Feb-86 11:41:00 EST
Article-I.D.: HI-MULTI.860208164138.380195
Posted: Sat Feb  8 11:41:00 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 12-Feb-86 06:44:52 EST
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Lines: 51

I'm sorry this is so long, but the things you said struck a chord.

Your first two myths have been dealt with earlier, but I feel I must 
comment on your third myth : that manned missions can accomplish things
that robots can't.  Your refutation of this says that robots and
teleoperators can do anything we want for at least the rest of the century.

If you look at the current levels of automation in the space program,
you would realise that they are very primitive in terms of what they
can actually do.  Our probes can manage to get where they want to go
and either sit and take pictures (in the case of landers), or fly by
and take pictures (in the case of fly-bys).  The complexity of actions
are very limited : adjust course from directions from earth, move
camera, change craft attitude, etc.  Even Viking, which was extremely advanced, had a lot
of trouble extending a simple arm to get a soil sample.  
The only reason it worked at all was because somebody on earth sent the
right signal, after much trial and error.

The major limitation of current probes is that they cannot perform actions that
were not designed for.  The original designers must take everything
into account before the thing gets built.  

All of these tasks were directed by people on the ground.  A very major
leap forward in research must take place before any kind of autonomous
action can be programmed in to one of these probes.  The state of the
art in Artificial Intelligence is not even close to providing the
capability needed to build the Mars Rover that has been proposed.
Give them five years and maybe so.  But even then, the range of action
will still be severely limited.

The shuttle was designed
for a human operator, not a cockpit full of computers.  It would
probably be more expensive to refit the shuttles for automated flight
than it would be to build the next generation of shuttle. And besides,
the technology doesn't exist.  Sure, Viking did fine. But that was
in a smaller gravity well, dropping straight down, opening a parachute.

Now, I'm not advocating that humans should be sent to probe the planets.
That job is currently being adaquately addressed by remote probes,
limited though they are.  But more complex tasks, such as building
the space station or lunar bases, mining asteroids, retrieving and repairing 
satellites, etc. can only be performed by humans at this time or in the
near future (before 2000).  

If you are satisfied to watch the universe unfold on the television,
that's fine. Remote probes are all you need.  But if you want to
personally watch the universe fold, or to give your children a chance
to do so, then the human space program is the way to go.

   Brett Slocum
   (Slocum@HI-MULTICS)