Comment Re:separate manned and unmanned (Score 1) 299
Manned and unmanned space exploration don't mutual exclude eachother.
First stage "mapping" can very efficently be done by unmanned probes. "Exploration" and especially "engeniering" are a real hard core task much more suiteable for humans. Maybe in 20years time the automatic parts will improve by several magnitudes but problems like the speed of light - think comand and controll - will remain.
The real problem is that we are nowere near the "exploration" or the "engeniering" stage and try to use humans.
Granted space stategy is planed on decades or even longer terms - thus a 14year target just shows how wishfull thinking the administration is.
First stage "mapping" can very efficently be done by unmanned probes. "Exploration" and especially "engeniering" are a real hard core task much more suiteable for humans. Maybe in 20years time the automatic parts will improve by several magnitudes but problems like the speed of light - think comand and controll - will remain.
The real problem is that we are nowere near the "exploration" or the "engeniering" stage and try to use humans.
Granted space stategy is planed on decades or even longer terms - thus a 14year target just shows how wishfull thinking the administration is.
