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 deal of useful information can be gathered without the costs and risks associated with sending men an

The author asserts that unmanned space flights should be bolstered instead of manned ones, since they are able to provide nearly the same information as the former option which, on the other hand, involves far more risks and costs. However, in order to assess this argument, three main assumptions must be evaluated.

To begin, even though unmanned space flights can provide a large sum of the useful information, it is not clear whether the remaining piece of data is essential and whether it can be totally accessed by machines. In case automation is not sufficient to find such portion of evidence, manned space flights would remain preferred – as only astronauts would manage to collect them. Furthermore, most of the machines may also require nearby human operators in order to function properly – and hence, manned space flights would again be the most suitable option.

Second, perhaps the majority of space missions were developed in order to assess the effects of a zero-gravity environment in the human body. In a Brazilian space mission occurred in 2003, for example, the astronaut Marcos Pontes was in charge of recording major shifts in his main corporal functions as well as in his overall health. Observations included sudden peaks in the blood pressure, intense motion sickness caused by the shuttle’s harsh movements, and development of auto immune diseases - to which most scientists attribute stress as the main cause. In case most government agencies create space missions in order to understand effects that sideral space causes in the human body, unmanned expeditions would prove themselves to be not only an irrational investment but also mostly useless.

Finally, costs may not be a major concern for government agencies when promoting a space mission. As the name suggests, these agencies are often backed by public investments, which are usually part of an annual budget created by public leaderships and destined for the preparation and development of space missions. Even though austerity is usually incentivized, the government, when establishing such provisions, is mostly concerned of the outcomes provided by the space projects. As long as the missions manage to report relevant outcomes and successfully achieve their pre-established objectives, public entities would likely agree to spend additional resources by sending human tripulants to space, as long as – of course – this additional expenditure remains within the forecasted budget.

Conclusively, the assertion that unmanned spaced flights ought to be preferred rather than manned ones is flawed as it is based on the unwarranted assumptions that costs are one of the major concerns of an expedition, that the majority of space missions are not primarily focused on assessing the effects of such experience in the human body, and that the remaining portion of information not collected by the modern equipment is not essential and could be accessed by either mankind or machines.