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Realistically, what do people plan to do on the Moon and Mars that requires a permanent, or long term human presence there? (lemmy.world)

submitted 4 days ago by DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world

353 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Is it really necessary to send humans to those places just to get the knock-on benefits? Couldn't we do those things directly, without going there?

It seems to me that, today, those who have the money to spend on these endeavors would only do so if there were perceived short-term benefits to themselves. That means they plan to exploit the resources, or increase their own power somehow.

I know the good engineers that make this happen are doing it for the challenge and in the pursuit of knowledge, and I know that's why we poors support it, but that doesn't "pay the bills." What is the motivation behind the money? Why are they really doing this?

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[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

thats kinda the point of automation. if that is our main focus then we improve the technology which is what we got out of the original space race. all the technology that made the endeavour eventually succeed. sending humans just sucks up expense and resources and slows down reall tangible and useful progress.

[–] Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Right, but sending them say to the moon, to perfect the tech, then sending the tech to further places will drastically speed up the process. The moon is at least not too far away. Mars isn't terrible either. But the overhead is high compared to the distance. So being able to iterate without a launch (human presence) is a big win. If we were talking saturn, then the gains start to diminish. So perfect it on the moon, maybe mars if there is some reason it is drastically different, then use it elsewhere. Maybe even send some outside the solar system. Though without significant improvements in propulsion, there isn't a lot of point to sending outside the solar system.

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 2 points 2 days ago

yeah I would also like to see trying out some other things on the moon. like a space elevator can be done without even the modern materials we have today and would let us vett that stuff. I do think we should send some stuff farther afield like probes or attempting asteroid drilling or capture but only if it can be done relatively cheaply. major stuff I agree would be best to perfect close by and then add it to the repetoire to send farther out.