Customer Reviews

Robots in Space: Technology, Evolution, and Interplanetary Travel (New Series in NASA History)

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

For as long as there have been humans, there has been a push outward to explore and inhabit new lands. It seems to be something we are programmed to do. When new worlds (or a New World) was discovered, settlers moved in to make them their own. The Earth is pretty well settled, and we have nowhere else to move, unless we start going to other planets entirely. We have just barely started exploring these distant unearthly worlds, but our ventures have already caused a big debate in the philosophy of exploration: should it be by humans or by robots? _In Robots in Space: Technology, Evolution, and Interplanetary Travel_ (The Johns Hopkins University Press), a couple of experts on the history of space exploration and space policies, Roger D. Launius and Howard E. McCurdy, summarize the debate and give surprising answers and speculation into what the future may hold. Their predictions and their solutions require imagination to understand, at the level of science fiction, and indeed their book frequently draws upon science fiction novels and movies for depictions of imaginary answers to future problems. It makes for entertaining reading, especially for someone like me who had not previously realized how much serious thought has gone into the debate about robots, space exploration, and the future of humans in space.

At the dawn of the space age, besides working on America's rocket program, Wernher von Braun wrote popular articles that emphasized humans in space as a continuation of America's tradition of exploration and settlement. The authors point out that such utopian visions have often been part of terrestrial exploration, and that they continue to fire the imaginations of those who want to see humans in space. Von Braun's vision stalled. Sending humans into space for military purposes turned out to be unnecessary. Even the Space Shuttle program was not consistent with the aims of the utopians. It might have been part of von Braun's vision of being transport to a space station, but it was essentially a "space truck" with little potential for getting us to other worlds. Of course von Braun relied on machines to get humans into space, but his plan greatly underestimated how good our robots were going to get, and how quickly they would fill commercial, military, and exploratory needs. It is still expensive to send robots into space, but they do not require money to be spent on life support, and in particular, they do not have to return to Earth to get their jobs done, while humans need to get back home. Maybe, however, there will be humans that don't need to make the return trip, and maybe the robot / human dilemma is a false one, one that could be resolved by combining the two. Take the durability and limited needs of robots and combine them with the adaptability and intellect of humans, and you start thinking about what is called transhumanism or posthumanism. This includes cyborgs (from "cybernetic organism") and there may be further combinations of machines and humans, and perhaps also genetic tinkering. Maybe humans making such journeys will be like no humans who ever came before them.

The authors know that they are merely conducting "intellectual exercises designed to broaden one's thinking about the options involved." Humans won't be able to live on Earth forever; even if we were taking perfect care of our environment, we can't count on an eternal Sun. The authors admit, "It disappoints us to think that humanity might forever be confined to a single world," and are not attracted to the idea that we would simply send out robots to do our exploration for us. They quote a former NASA official: "We don't give ticker tape parades for robots." As much speculation as there is in the book, there is also a serious assessment for what is needed in the future. The prospects for human colonization within the solar system look small, even for the most likely of future homes, Mars. Assessing planets outside the solar system has just begun, and the authors see this as the top priority for space exploration. Other priorities include finding a more effective propulsion system, because our current rockets won't get humans, robots, or cyborgs very far very fast; reducing the cost of space travel; and civil partnerships with privately owned space industries. Even these priorities, which the authors view as realistic, some might see as mere science fiction. Only a few decades ago, however, travel to the Moon was mere science fiction. _Robots in Space_ is about a lot more than just robots, and although it is a sober and thoughtful examination of serious ideas, it is a mind-stretching trip.

The book's title and its jacket -- image of "Spirit" Mars Rover, -- imply that it is a history and/or forecast of robotic space exploration. Actually it is more than anything else a history of "robots vs. humans debate" -- the longstanding argument among space-related comminuty in United States over the best way to explore space.

In first two thirds of the book Launius and McCurdy trace last 50 years of spaceflight through the lens of this debate, and of cultural assumptions of both sides. They do not exactly take sides, but claim that as 21st Century rolled around both technological and social trends are favoring the "robotic exploration" camp -- even without actively advocating it. The last third is given to the notions of transhumanism -- biological and mechanical augmentation of human body and mind, and how it applies to space travel. Ultimately the authors reveal (actually, they hint on it early on) their own answer to "robots or humans?" question: and the answer is "cyborgs". Baseline humans are too fragile to function in space, and machines alone are too uninspiring. Ultimately, Launius and McCurdy believe, space belongs to merger of both.

The book is very well researched, and presentation is convincing, although repetitive in places. "Tortoise and hare" analogy (applied to robotic and manned US space programs, respectively) grew a bit annoying with repetition, and Chapter 6 which speculates on interstellar flight seemed to me shoehorned in for no good reason. Hence 4 stars.

I am sorry as can be. Still in all honesty I have to object to this book on the grounds of the price alone. For this kind of wampum they should have been showing previously unpublished photo's of GOD naked in all HER glory!

I am so insulted to be asked for this huge amount of money! 99% of the writing in this Article is simple plagiarization of articles that were written during the dates and times over which most of this information was published for everyone to read. Much of it was bought out in such great publications such as "Boy's Life" and Christen Science Monitor not to mention the magazines Life and Look. Least we forget the most unsung of them all, Readers Digest.

I worked along side many of these types of person's at NASA JPL and the like in Titusville Johnson and Huntsville. Every blessed one that I know would have screamed bloody murder should they have wished to pickup a copy of this book. Unless the coffee table version has a lot of great photos I have not viewed.

I am really sorry to have to be this negative on any book to read as I do love the printed word.

dray

My disappointment with this book is caused by the following:

1) Both authors are NASA insiders and offer no thoughts whatsoever on the ongoings outside of NASA. The space efforts of both other countries and the private sector is ignored. This is a most grave blunder in the light of the progress made in the last decade in the private sector as well as the success of European space probes.

2) The focus of the book is entirely on NASA and what NASA might do in the future.

3) The book starts with the "False Dichotomy" between robotics against human space travel but does not present the reader with any good reason why these strategies are compatible.

4) The book fails miserably to describe the events between what is known to informed reader at present and up until the event of "posthuman space flight". Basically they go from a tedious recollection of known facts to the most free-flight fantasy.

5) In the closing chapters the authors try to come up with a "New Space Paradigm" which has nothing new whatsoever about it.

Conclusion: "Robots in Space" is an irrelevant piece of drivel. Personally I am surprised this book made it to publishing.