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The Real Reason for Sending Astronauts into Space

Posted by michael on from the because-it's-there dept.

Puneet writes "An article on New York Times discussing the need for astronauts for carrying out experiments in space. Too many of the planned experiments depend on crew operations when they could more effectively be done without them. In many cases, the crew is needed only to deploy an autonomous experiment."

2 of 346 comments (clear)

  1. Explore the vastness of human hunger by Tacit_Blue · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I think space is great, but where are all those great technologies that were promised. IMHO velcro was a big letdown. What about the hungry people you could feed for one doller a day.

  2. Re:we do it because we can by 73939133 · · Score: 3, Flamebait

    And they were more than happy to take that risk to get the chance to go into space.

    Yes, but I am less than happy to pay for it.

    I don't mean that in a cynical way. Humans by their very nature need to explore.

    Well, astronauts are free to pay for their own "need to explore". My "need to explore" is better satisfied with unmanned probes.

    It would be a horrible shame if manned spaceflight came to an end because it became politically incorrect.

    It's ironic that you use right-wing rhetoric to defend what amounts to a useless, bloated government program, a waste of tax payer money. Where is that "private enterprise" spirit people like you keep talking about? If manned space exploration is worth doing, private enterprise will rise to the challenge, right?