The following opinion was provided in a letter to the editor of a national aeronautics magazine:“Manned space flight is costly and dangerous. Moreover, the recent success of a series of unmanned space probes and satellites has demonstrated that a great de

In the letter sent to the editor of National aeronautics magazine, the author states that manned space flights are costly and dangerous. he goes on to say that investments should be made in unmanned flights instead of focusing on manned ones. The argument at first glance appears to be sound but is rife with holes and unstated assumptions on further scrutiny. Let us further explore each point.

Firstly, the author does not discuss or provide any further details into the costs and dangers that could be incurred. The suggestion would be more cogent if more detailed analysis is provided for the same.it is possible that the costs involved are equal or even less than that of unmanned flights.

Secondly, the author provides a false analogy and then makes an assumption based on that. It is also plausible that even unmanned flights weren't doing well before their recent acclaim to success. The recent success of the unmanned flights does not indicate that the manned flights will be unsuccessful. They might even prove to be better than the unmanned flights altogether. For example It is possible that the gadgets and technology used in Manned flights is such that it requires manual intervention and are more high end and provide more features. It is also possible that Unmanned flights weren't able to gather some useful information required and that makes creating manned flights even more important.

Thirdly, the author states that investment of resources should be made entirely for unmanned space flights but it is possible that spending resources on Manned flights is equally important for new scientific discoveries.

The author tries to provide a valid argument but unless proper reasoning for the assumptions and statements is not provided, it is unconvincing and does not prove to be of much use.