History and comparison of NASA's manned and unmanned space programs

Space

Manned vs. Unmanned

Space Exploration

There are many advantages and disadvantages to men being hurled into outer space. The United States as a nation has a long and distinguished history of doing just that. "October 1, 1958, the official start of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), was the beginning of a rich history of unique scientific and technological achievements in human space flight, aeronautics, space science, and space applications. Formed as a result of the Sputnik crisis, NASA inherited the earlier National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), and other government organizations, and almost immediately began working on options for human space flight." (NASA) One of the very first successful operations on the part of the new agency was its high profile Project Mercury program because it laid the foundation of all future manned travel into outer space. Once NASA understood that humans could in fact survive the trip out into and back from space, they boldly launched Project Gemini with two astronauts. The rest is now history as man has walked on the moon during Apollo 11 in 1969 and has also landed an unmanned rover on the planet Mars. Today, space flight is a normal part of our economic globalization process as NASA and now many other nations and private space programs regularly put satellites and other orbiters, galaxy traveling cameras and even planet crashing robots into space. The international community shares a permanent space station that may one day be the take off point for all future distance space exploration. Of course, there have been some mishaps along the way, but by in large, the space program now incorporates many different nations into teams with an end result being a successful space program for the entire planet. This report aims to discuss the space program from both the manned and unmanned space flight perspective with a secondary objective of comparing the advantages and disadvantages of each type of spaceflight.

Cons manned

Of course, there are also some disadvantages to adding men to space travel. The first major disadvantage is the fact that adding men to a program greatly increases the cost of the program. Men have to be cared for in regard to safety and return flights. A second disadvantage in regard to man on flights to space is the fact that men do not have the same longevity as unmanned situations may offer. Because man is mortal, he may not make it alive to a far off location. The Hubble craft for instance is still going strong after decades of use and it never once asked for a lunch or dinner break. A third disadvantage is the fact that man may make more mistakes than a programmed process or robot. Man may make a decision that at the time seems like the right thing to do but it may in fact be ac completely illogical judgment based on panicking.

Pros unmanned

Robotic flight has a clear advantage over manned in the sense of how long a flight could potentially take. Man cannot last nearly as long and men have human functional needs that robotic programs do not have. A second advantage is the fact that robotic programs will do routine tasks over and never get bored with that repetitive cycle. Space travel is for all intense of purpose a boring process. The ship takes off and there is really not too much to do as the ship flies to its location. Machines will not get bored. The cost of adding robotics as compared to humans is greatly less as well. NASA and space programs do not have to add as many fail safes that are costly into programs that will go unmanned. "Additionally, NASA has launched a number of significant scientific probes such as the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft that have explored the Moon, the planets, and other areas of our solar system. NASA has sent several spacecraft to investigate Mars including the Viking and Mars Pathfinder spacecraft. The Hubble Space Telescope and other space science spacecraft have enabled scientists to make a number of significant astronomical discoveries about our universe." (NASA)

Cons unmanned

The disadvantages of unmanned space travel are similar to that of manned. The problems associated with unmanned travel into space occur mainly in the sense of troubleshooting. What happens if something goes wrong on a flight and there are no humans to intervene? The robotic process can not deviate from any existing preprogrammed process so if anything goes wrong the entire mission may have to be aborted. A second disadvantage would be similar if the communications process is eliminated or damaged in some way. If there is no way of communicating with the unmanned ship then the mission is as good as lost. A third disadvantage is based on the exploration of the end of the mission. When there are no humans directing the show on sight, long distance communications may or may not be able to navigate the robotic process into place as needed. For example, consider the simple expectation of taking a picture of something that is slightly lower and to the left of the camera. Humans make this adjustment very easily but robotic processes may not.

Conclusion

The space program has both manned and unmanned programs and each serves a purpose that benefits the entire space program. There is little doubt that one benefits from the other and vice versa. Recently, when NASA rammed a small missile like satellite into the moon to see if water was present, it was highly successful. However, if the program had been manned, it would have required years of more research and associated costs to get the men there and then to bring them back safely. But in the same sense, the space station recently had major repairs and additions added on that required men to physically bolt parts and housing on to the existing structure. Could robots have done it, it is possible. But men got it done right the first time. In each of these examples, manned and unmanned were used appropriately. This only goes to show, there advantages and disadvantages to each process.