Mike Beede wrote:

In article ,
(Jay Masino) wrote:

The main problem NASA's facing is that funding for all of our existing
projects (especially Earth science), most of which are providing a lot of
good science, is being funneled away into Bush's big waste of
time/money... moving towards putting men back onto the Moon and
eventually
Mars. I know a lot of you really want to see people on the Moon/Mars,
but
the benefit vs. cost just isn't there. We're better off continuing low
cost use of robotic exploration.

I heard a couple of the Mars Rover drivers talk at a conference
a couple weeks ago. Someone asked them if manned exploration
made any sense vs. the Rovers. They both agreed that a human
would be greatly more capable than a robot.

Mike Beede


Mike,

while I agree that a human would be greatly more capable than a robot, I
don't think we've exhausted the mining of information robots can give us.
Until we do - until the ONLY way to get more information is to send a
human, I vote for sending eveer more capable robots, and not risking the
human life nor spending the zillions to put the human there. Those zillions
are better spent, in my opinion, on more robots.

--
Saville

Replicas of 15th-19th century nautical navigational instruments:

http://home.comcast.net/~saville/backstaffhome.html

Restoration of my 82 year old Herreshoff S-Boat sailboat:

http://home.comcast.net/~saville/SBOATrestore.htm

Steambending FAQ with photos:

http://home.comcast.net/~saville/Steambend.htm