Men on Mars

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally posted by Beestie
dar512 wrote:

I don't get the sense that the purpose of a Mars mission is anything other than the "because its there" reason. Additionally, what can an astronaut do on Mars that a robot can't?

He can fix the damn robot without a light-hour's signal lag, for one thing. Manned missions are expensive, yes, but you buy flexibility with that, and with it, survivability. In a hostile environment, that's beyond price.