The Real Reason for Sending Astronauts into Space

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."

Comments

Why send astronauts?

[Anonymous Coward]

Monkeys aren't intelligent enough.

IP points way to profitable space colonies.

[tjstork]

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...