Why send humans to the moon?

We have sent them there before and they have explored it a great deal. Today we are building robots that can explore 24/7 for years without the need of humans or the fear of safety for human lives. Radiation will be a MAJOR problem if humans remain on the moon for longer periods of time, which is being suggested, because there's simply no way to keep the exposure to cosmic radiation at low enough levels to insure human safety. Even with recent advancements in protective gear it is only about 40 to 50 percent effective and that means humans are going to be overexposed to all of the radiation that is out there.

Once the humans leave the protection of the magnetosphere that surrounds the Earth and protects them somewhat from radiation they are going to be in a very serious area of safety. Why is it humans must get back to the moon before they have ample safety procedures in place to protect themselves from all of this radiation that will damage them and will lead to many other biological problems like broken DNA and cancers as well. With the safety that humans need to make them totally safe from overexposure it is going to take longer to create that technology, so why don't humans wait for that to happen before risking other humans lives?

Robots can do the almost same things a human can do for allot less money and no safety problems.

 

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Humans are more intuitive than robots. A robot may be programmed to look for certain things and then analyse them, but a human may notice other things of interest the robot did not etc.

 

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Humans could use the robots as their own eyes with the new stereo vision they have developed now. They can move the robots anywhere they want them to go also today. So that means the robots are almost as good as humans today so why not be satisfied with just using them to save money and to insure that humans won't become overdosed with radioactivity from many cosmic rays?

 

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It does not matter were humans go, as long as we gain experience by going there. Moon is close to Earth and we as a starting space faring civilization need experience in space.

 

But when you are going to injure humans by letting them get overdosed by radiation that's not very good exploring, at least to me. Robots can be sacrificed and discarded if they malfunction, humans cannot be.

 

robots are not human civilization. I want to feel space as part of my life and we need to be in space, even if it means across skulls of others.

 

Not like us, watch...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1UJA94Hwgs

 

If we don't come up with some reasons soon people will realize that it is just an unbelievable expense that will not help many people.

 

people are different. Already many nations are investing into space and already many are wishing and going to space.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS UNBELIEVABLE EXPENSE.

 

We are in space

And unless someone develops a economical space elevator you will never leaf earth's atmosphere.
The reaction time for robot's due to the distance is 3 seconds. Sending humans to the moon is the biggest waste of money afhter offcourse bringing democrasie to Irak (witch apparently envolves killing all it's inhabitants).
No NASA's moon plan is envolves a couple of bunny hops costing a couple of billion each verry little considering what they US can afford but to much for what NASA can.

Robots have the advantage that they never have to return meaning you can take tons of extra ecuipment on every trip. Humans have the disadvantage that their are dependend of food that can't be cultivated on the surface because of the moons 30 day rotation (so to be completly depended the moon would need to have sun screens). Nasa should focus on developing a remote controled lunar base and and perhaps Near earth asteroids witch require lees delta v to reach and to escape

 

Because they want to. You don't have to go. Someone will always want to go. And if you are just pissed about the expense, call it smart/motivated/people welfare to make it right in your head.

 

Speaking of which, does anyone know if it was ever established that Jack Swigert's bone cancer was linked to his Apollo 13 trip?
I think I heard that bone cancer was the type most likely to result from cosmic radiation.
(Apologies for side-tracking, cosmictraveler.)

PS Wouldn't it be more efficient to replace humans by robots on Earth as well?

 

But why cause diseases and maybe the deaths of people just because they want to do siomething. That just doesn't make any sense to me when we really don't need to do that to anyone. By just waiting for the technology to catch up in order to insure the safety and lower costs for humans in space would be a much more prudent way of exploration, to me, for then we can go into space without the worry of risking humans lives due to overexposure to radiation. Why can't humans just be a little patient until sfety can catch up? What's all the rush anyway?:shrug:

 

Contrary to popular belief, most of the earth's protection from radiation comes from the atmosphere itself, rather than the earth's magnetic field. The field helps a little, but its contribution is small compared to the atmosphere's. Astronauts in low earth orbit still need a lot of radiation shielding, even though they are deep inside the magnetosphere. Note that you have almost no protection from the magnetic field when you're standing near the earth's magnetic north and south poles, but you won't be at any particular radiation risk.

/end of off-topic trivia

 

Good questions. I don't know about his bone cancer perhaps someone else here does and can let us know.

Humans are being replaced by robots on Earth already for jobs that require dangerous duties and hazardous work. That isn't the point I was making however because we were discussing humans exploring space safely. My suggestion is to wait until the humans can go SAFELY into space which may take a few more years to develop the equipment needed to insure their safety from cosmic radiation exposure while exploring space away from Earth. Humans have gotten to about a 50 percent level in protection and within a few more years that will increase I'm sure to give them at least a chance of not getting sick or dying while exploring.

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I got a question...

if you knew you would have bone cancer from space...would you still go to space? because I without hesitation, would. and not just bone...take my whole body

 

True, that's why even better protection must be given to those humans who travel even deeper into space for longer durations. Today they spend up to 6 months in space and get a huge dose of radiation even during that brief time. So we don't need to send them farther away for longer periods without much better protection than is available at the present time. It will take some more time to get that protection correct so let us wait until then to send them to the moon or elsewhere for their own safety.

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But if you knew that within 5 years you would be protected from getting bone cancer would you wait?

 

we already have technology to protect ourselves from space...like thick lead metal

http://www.springerlink.com/content/e77350r167k564l4/fulltext.pdf

 

That won't protect against ALL cosmic radiation as you should know.