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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."

6 of 346 comments (clear)

  1. Why send astronauts? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Monkeys aren't intelligent enough.

    1. Re:Why send astronauts? by Imperator · · Score: 2, Funny

      Except perhaps for unimportant jobs.

      (Damnit, why didn't anyone take up my suggestion to buy low.iq and CNAME it to whitehouse.gov? Come on Iraqis, for once it's in your interests to cooperate with us.)

      --

      Gates' Law: Every 18 months, the speed of software halves.
  2. So if astronauts were honest... by Bake · · Score: 2, Funny

    Would this be a realistic dialogue?

    - "So, what do you do for a living?"
    - "I'm an astronaut"
    - "Cool, so what do they do?"
    - "Press the 'On' button in Space"

  3. IP points way to profitable space colonies. by tjstork · · Score: 5, Funny

    Detractors are quick to point out that it would be difficult to create a self sustaining colony on another planet because there is nothing that could be traded with it. Those arguments fail completely when one considers IP. Yes, IP, that evil Intellectual Property that we rail against, is also a product that a space based habitat could do to make it profitable.

    IP advantages of a moon / mars base:

    a) Completely safe against terrorism and domestic insurrection.

    b) The ultimate DR site. If the Earth were to be hit by an Asteroid, rest assured, the IRS would still be able to collect taxes from cockroaches that lived through it.

    c) Complete secrecy. These days, spies run everywhere and satellites get pictures of your stuff from LEO. If you are on Mars, a spy satellite is a taller order...

    d) Powered by superior Windows software, the DR site will require humans to be present to reboot and monitor servers...

    --
    This is my sig.
  4. Re:We dont need humans anymore by Bake · · Score: 2, Funny

    That's just because we haven't built the Skynet yet.

    Now, all we have to do is build this Skynet thingmajigg and wait for it to become self-aware and it'll take care of the rest.

  5. Re:But^H^H^HYou undervalue the brain by trentfoley · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Command, we are on the surface of Mars. The robotic probes landed two hours ago and have reported nothing outside of the parameters for which they were designed. We are now descending to the pressure lock. We are opening the door... @#$%^^^$$@$#@GOD!! thousands of small aircraft}}}..}pictures of horror forced in my mind}}}...}}}..Aaarrrgh"
    pfzzzzzt bzzzt kabloom!
    }}NO CARRIER