Sending humans into space is a tricky business. They need air to breathe, food to eat and protection from harmful energy called radiation. There are plenty more obstacles besides these, and if anything goes wrong, astronauts are a long way from home. However, despite these challenges, rockets have launched hundreds of human beings into space since Yuri Gagarin became the first to make the journey in 1961. The Artemis 2 mission, which has captured the world’s attention, is seen by many as an important step towards sending humans to Mars. However, given the difficulties involved, is it really worth it, especially as uncrewed missions have already been there? What’s your view – is it ok to send humans to space?
Yes – humans offer something special Sending uncrewed missions into space will never be the same as sending people there. There is something special about watching humanity reach for the stars and seeing astronauts go to extraordinary places. Some people think humans will live on other planets one day, so it makes sense to get used to the difficulties of space to prepare for more ambitious missions. Besides, missions that only use machines will never create the same excitement as human astronauts. There are other benefits too. Humans make different types of observations to those of machines, and can talk about their experiences. Their stories and the descriptions of what they’ve done are more persuasive than a robot’s report.
No – it’s much safer to send robots Humans are more important than machines and it takes care and money to keep them alive in space. For example, machines don’t need food or air and don’t age in the same way people do. It’s far safer to send uncrewed spacecraft on risky missions. Are humans’ descriptions really so much more valuable than a computer’s observations? After all, uncrewed missions into space have made incredible discoveries and travelled huge distances, including Voyager 1, which was launched in 1977 and is now more than 15 billion miles from Earth. Machines can also survive conditions that humans couldn’t, such as extreme heat. Machines have landed on the surface of Venus, where the average surface temperature is 464°C.
