Why not us?

Many think that robots and robotic technology that already changed the face of industry will find its way into every aspect of our life, making many professions obsolete, in fact annihilating labor all together.

One scene from an old Schwarzenegger movie comes to mind, it is the 1990's version of Total Recall. As a robotic and funny taxi driver is taking the star around the city.

Well, today in memory of the late Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, we will trace the place where robots have pretty much replaced humans, you guessed it, Space travel!
human in space is limited presence exclusively to Near Earth orbit where are all the space stations at. But first manned landing on the moon was performed back in 1969, forty three years ago, all that with on board computers that are arguably much less capable than some of the older cellular phones!

Why then, at this stage, with such advanced technological ability we have such hard times returning to the moon, let alone performing a manned mission to Mars?

In short, politics, shorter yet, money!

The cold war was a terrible thing, breeding much animosity, paranoia and from both sides. Breeding and encouraging much violence through much of the second half of the 20th century. But one good thing arose out of this war, and that was the Space Race that started with the launch of the notorious Russian satellite: the Sputnik 1. The prestige of both superpowers demanded that they would try and precede the other's accomplishments in that field.

This meant that the politicians had the greatest incentive to push for that end, but also, more importantly in the United States, the public opinion let them do that. And so, the capital invested in the space agencies of both power was extremely high. Yet victory could be achieved only by making the most difficult, but at the same time the most symbolic deeds, but out of all the great accomplishments precedents set by humans, not machines, had the most impact.

But when the race was over, both the politicians and the public interest in the space program dwindled, and with it its funding. Since then only unmanned probes left near earth orbit.

So finally we reach the answer to the question that is the title of this post. What makes a manned mission back to the moon such a big problem?

Well we humans need many strict conditions to survive, we need fresh air, water, food, place to sleep in and we need to be isolated from all kinds of radiation. Many of the life support systems need secondary and tertiary backup systems to keep men safe. All that
"problems" are very expensive to solve. This makes any mission beyond near earth orbit, especially those that are aimed at other planets not just the moon, an engineering feat like no other.

A mission to mars might take some 400 days to complete, this might also bring another type of challenge to the planners the psychological challenge. Psychological Effects on humans on long missions were extensively studied, and it was found that people needed to be occupied all the time to keep themselves of losing touch, keeping sane.

So, it is of no surprise that at the current state of things space agencies around the world are keener on using probes and robots to do the research work. There is no dead payload or space on the curiosity rover, there is no need to supply it with anything other than energy. It needs no time to sleep, doesn't need to rest or eat. There is protection to the equipment, but relative to what sustaining human life demands it is pretty Spartan. 

But, even though robots and probes make pretty much all the space travel there is still a need for manned missions. There are still many great things that, at least for now only humans can do, experiments that only we can perform. The question here is the cost benefit of the mission. People and nations must be ready to invest large sums of money for manned space flight to be achieved and maintained.  

Although a manned mission to the moon is currently suspended, and the closest manned mission to mars is planned for somewhere in the late 2020's, we shouldn't give up hope. Neither should we forget the monumental achievement of the Apollo missions to nor the legacy of the first man to the moon step on it that have inspired generations of children and scientists.

First post, first top three!

I'd like to introduce myself before I start talking about whatever interests me in the last few days. I wish to remain anonymous and therefore I will reveal only few things about myself.

1. I am not a scientist, although I work in a technical profession, i am by no means a scientific authority.
2. Although people tell me I know a lot, I have little in the way of mathematical knowledge, my understanding is almost always based on instinct. I find this kind of method makes it easier to understand the principals, and for me this is the point.
3. I am 26 years old, some of you might think that's too young, others that's too old. None the less I hope I'll satisfy your expectations of me as a blogger.
4. English is not my native language. Although I think that I am pretty fluent with English, I apologize for the mistakes I might make.
5. My interests are wide and are not limited by this disciple or the other. By the way I have an almost fetishistic interest in all things airborne and I might, from time to time mention this topic.

So, onto my first post!

Top three most exiting science news lately:

Most of you heard about them, some of you might even think about several more exiting news, but that is my pick:

1. CERN scientists announcing that a new boson was found, probably Higgis -
   How can you do without the bit of news that might change science history forever! scientists are not yet sure that it is the Higgis Boson (A.K.A "The god particle", A.K.A "The goddamned particle"), more testing is needed to determine that for sure. If it is the Higgis, then it proves the Standard model, and mankind can start researching how this particle interacts with the other particles. But even if it is not the Higgis, it might be a new type of boson that the Standard model didn't predict and it might carry a different and new type of force (all other natural force carriers except gravity were accounted for), now how exiting is that!
    
2. Curiousity rover successful landing on mars- Now, the event itself is not exiting as the prospect of what the rover would help us find on that red planet that we, for so long, suspected might inhabit or had inhabited microscopic life forms.
    
3. Scientists engineered an organic "robot" that acts a bit like a jelly fish, out of mice heart tissue and some silicone- Again, the event itself is not as exiting as the prospect of backwards biological engineering. with this process we might better understand how things in nature, and our bodies work. this is good of course if we want to create better ways to treat diseases or trauma, maybe even creating ways to replicate organs so that people wouldn't have to wait as much for heart transplant, for instance.