Starship Asterisk*

rstevenson wrote:One of the things I find most frustrating about seeing all these images from our amazing rovers is that there is no human there to say, "Hmmm, that looks interesting. Let's have a look." Sure, the rover team does some of that, but it's a major job to get the rover to go over there to have a look, where a human could just jog over and give it a poke, take a close-up photo and maybe a sample, and be back in 10 minutes. We need to start getting people there ASAP, trained scientist/explorers at first, of course.

rstevenson wrote:
With pixels as big as that the human brain can see almost anything there. But I agree with Geck's guess, it is a rock. A pale coloured rock and therefore perhaps worth exploring, but just a rock.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_18_%28film%29 wrote:

---

<<In December 1974, the crew of the cancelled Apollo 18 mission is informed that it will now proceed as a top secret Department of Defense (DoD) mission disguised as a satellite launch. While planting one of the detectors, the pair take moon rock samples. After returning to Liberty, the pair hear noises outside and a camera captures a small rock moving nearby. Anderson finds a rock sample on the floor of Liberty despite having secured the samples. During further lunar exploration they discover footprints that lead them to a bloodstained, functioning Soviet LK lander, and a dead cosmonaut in a nearby crater. Walker queries Houston about the Soviet presence, but he is told only to continue with the mission. The following day the pair find that the flag they had planted is missing. Their mission complete, the crew prepares to leave, but the launch is aborted when Liberty suffers violent shaking. An inspection reveals extensive damage to Liberty and non-human tracks that Walker cites as evidence of extraterrestrial life. Walker feels something moving inside his spacesuit and is horrified as a spider-like creature crawls across the inside of his helmet. Walker disappears from view and Anderson finds him unconscious outside of Liberty. Walker later denies the events. A wound is discovered on Walker's chest; Anderson removes a moon rock embedded within him.>>

rstevenson wrote:
One of the things I find most frustrating about seeing all these images from our amazing rovers is that there is no human there to say, "Hmmm, that looks interesting. Let's have a look." Sure, the rover team does some of that, but it's a major job to get the rover to go over there to have a look, where a human could just jog over and give it a poke, take a close-up photo and maybe a sample, and be back in 10 minutes.

Chris Peterson wrote:

rstevenson wrote:One of the things I find most frustrating about seeing all these images from our amazing rovers is that there is no human there to say, "Hmmm, that looks interesting. Let's have a look." Sure, the rover team does some of that, but it's a major job to get the rover to go over there to have a look, where a human could just jog over and give it a poke, take a close-up photo and maybe a sample, and be back in 10 minutes. We need to start getting people there ASAP, trained scientist/explorers at first, of course.

Nope. Waste of money, and reduced value missions. Rovers do better. A human mission is going to be locked down to a base, probably in a geologically boring area, and is going to spend most of its time keeping the toilets working. And all the interesting things they see are likely to be- as in this case- rocks.

For the cost of a single manned mission we could send up 100 rovers, and produce probably 1000 times the scientific knowledge.

rstevenson wrote:

Chris Peterson wrote:

rstevenson wrote:One of the things I find most frustrating about seeing all these images from our amazing rovers is that there is no human there to say, "Hmmm, that looks interesting. Let's have a look." Sure, the rover team does some of that, but it's a major job to get the rover to go over there to have a look, where a human could just jog over and give it a poke, take a close-up photo and maybe a sample, and be back in 10 minutes. We need to start getting people there ASAP, trained scientist/explorers at first, of course.

Nope. Waste of money, and reduced value missions. Rovers do better. A human mission is going to be locked down to a base, probably in a geologically boring area, and is going to spend most of its time keeping the toilets working. And all the interesting things they see are likely to be- as in this case- rocks.

For the cost of a single manned mission we could send up 100 rovers, and produce probably 1000 times the scientific knowledge.

Your logic is unassailable Chris. But when have humans ever taken on tasks for purely logical reasons? People want to go to Mars and elsewhere "out there", so they will. Relax and enjoy the trip.

geckzilla wrote:Just think if you could walk over and pick up everything that looked "interesting" from these photos and find out they aren't anything you were imagining at all. They're all just rocks, rocks, rocks and more rocks. No pixels to zoom in, just high quality rocks seen with one's own eyes. I'd take off my helmet and end my miserable existence.

rstevenson wrote:

geckzilla wrote:Just think if you could walk over and pick up everything that looked "interesting" from these photos and find out they aren't anything you were imagining at all. They're all just rocks, rocks, rocks and more rocks. No pixels to zoom in, just high quality rocks seen with one's own eyes. I'd take off my helmet and end my miserable existence.

You're not a geologist, I'm guessing.