The Next Giant Leap
To speed progress on future human space missions, two cosmologists argue for investing heavily in mechanical scouts now.
Review by Robin Tatu
The End of Astronauts: Why Robots Are the Future of Exploration
By Donald Goldsmith and Martin Rees.
Belknap Press, Harvard University, April 2022.
192 pages.
Stunning images captured recently by NASA’s James Webb telescope have inspired awe and renewed interest in human exploration of space. Given the huge costs and dangers involved, however, missions led by humans—from establishing a lunar base to mining asteroids—should take a back seat to machine expeditions for the near term, argue astrophysicists Donald Goldsmith and Martin Rees, the UK’s 15th Astronomer Royal, in their provocative new book. By investing in artificial intelligence and increasingly sophisticated robotic systems, the authors contend, space programs can make faster progress and pave the way for humans within decades.
The End of Astronauts doesn’t dismiss the desire for footfall on a distant planet, however perilous the undertaking. Chapter 1, “Why Explore,” frames that long-standing fascination as an admirable part of humanity’s natural urge to inquire, push boundaries, and seek new knowledge. Successive chapters, however, demonstrate the folly of rushing human presence, drawing on history as well as raising such complex—and controversial—issues as the ethics of altering alien environments, regulation of commercial space activities, and territorial legal rights.
Consider Mars—at 300 million miles from Earth, it is our nearest and most promising neighbor. However, engineers have yet to figure out how to keep astronauts fed, watered, healthy, and safe on the seven-month journey to the red planet, let alone the return trip. Prolonged states of weightlessness can lead to skeletal deterioration, cataracts, and risks of severe blood clots. Radiation, solar wind, and cosmic ray particles pose serious threats, which increase with exposure. One solution for improving humans’ chances in space, the authors propose, could be to redesign human bodies with “super-powerful genetic and cyborg technologies” so that in centuries to come, “post-humans” with extended life spans can journey even beyond Jupiter’s distant moons. At present, though, robots should “go boldly where humans rightly fear to tread.” And go they have: In the five decades since the last manned lunar mission, the authors observe, “automated spacecraft not only have traveled thousands of times farther to investigate all the major objects that orbit the sun but also have made literally billions of observations of much more distant objects in our own galaxy and far beyond the Milky Way.”
Subsequent chapters of the book walk readers through the “six spheres of exploration,” starting with familiar realms of near-Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars, and recently investigated asteroids. The latter sections focus on overarching challenges such as space basecamps, funding, and legal issues. Chapter 7, “Space Colonization,” examines not just the technical requirements of settlements but also issues of governance. Chapter 8, “The Global Costs of Space Exploration,” details the financing involved for planned human initiatives, including NASA’s estimated 2024 Artemis manned lunar mission and current activity in China, Russia, India, Japan, and the European Space Agency. Chapter 9, “Space Law,” highlights the complexities of determining interstellar rights and territorial claims, and of regulating nations, private companies, and individuals in space. As the authors note, Russia and China declined to sign the 2020 Artemis Accords, an agreement presented by the United States to its space partners “to govern exploration and exploitation of the moon” that critics charge favors US commercial interests.
Goldsmith and Rees voice concerns over disturbing pristine planetary landscapes and the geological record. They further contemplate whether space industry and agriculture satellite bases could help relieve the desperate plight of our home planet. Readers may not fully accept their conclusion that “we don’t need humans to explore the solar system, however much we may want them” to. Still, The End of Astronauts presents a persuasive case for letting robots do the work aloft while engineers pioneer our extraterrestrial future.
Robin Tatu is Prism‘s book editor.
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