Quote:
Originally Posted by hi_im_god
except i'm not criticizing the space program. i'm criticizing the manned space program.
and i remain confused by your and sorehoof's comment that having human payload somehow increased the pace of discovery in fields having nothing to do with manned exploration.
instead of changing the subject again, can you explain how these assertions are true?
|
The manned space program is more versatile than building specialized probes for every mission. The observations of guys like Alan Shepherd and John Glenn were critical in getting subjective as well as objective feedback for vehicle design.
A man on the moon can observe, "This place is clearly not made up of green cheese." It clearly would be harder and would take longer to build unmanned craft for the same purpose, though unmanned craft would cost less per mission and would be expendable.
Also, much of the advancement that flourished out of the space program came from the drive to miniturize the systems to acceptable weights. The part that drove that weight requirement was the distance to the moon, and the fact that the living and breathing astronauts needed all the systems to sustain them, and the space, maneuverability and redundancy to make sure that they had the highest chance of performing their mission and surviving.