The Brickmuppet says:

"40 years ago our parents and grandparents [put a man on the moon].
Then they gave up.
Let us not betray our children's birthright the way ours was."

To which I say, horseshit, you should pardon the expression. Shall we look at some of the "giving up" that happened in that 40 years?

Viking landers on Mars.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Spirit and Opportunity

Voyager visiting Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
Galileo
Cassini

The Hubble Space Telescope
SOHO
Chandra
Cosmic Background Explorer

That's a lot of very productive "giving up", don't you think? And it's far from being a complete list.

What we've "given up" on is trying to put humans in those places. And that was the right decision, because we can do more exploration, faster, better, cheaper, and safer using machines. Because machines don't eat or breath, and you don't have to bring them back safely.

UPDATE: Fledge responds.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in at 07:34 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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