Quote:
Originally Posted by Teabinge
If there will be a component of competetion or threat in it (eg the Chinese) America will go manned to Mars fairly soon (20 years or so). If not - I think clever robots will do the work until we possibly get faster rockets etc (100 years?). But by then "robots" will be veery skillful. What's the point then with humans? Except för emotional reasons.
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Actually we don't need faster rockets to get to Mars. Current levels of rocket technology is quite adequate. The only barriers to higher performance rockets are to do with actualisation and operation, and the need to build them.
And robots are not clever and skillful, only their designers and operators. Which is why having people on the surface will always be much more productive. Until we do, we have to make do with the robots. But exploring the Martian surface with robots alone is a bit like trying to eat a meal with chopsticks a million kilometres long.
Jon