Skip to content
Skip to main content

About this free course

Download this course

Share this free course

Moons of our Solar System
Moons of our Solar System

Start this free course now. Just create an account and sign in. Enrol and complete the course for a free statement of participation or digital badge if available.

1.1 Humans or robots?

In this video, Ian Crawford discusses the advantage of human exploration over robotic missions; however, there are pros and cons for each. Robotic missions are a lot cheaper than crewed missions and do not need to return to Earth, but humans are a lot more efficient at exploration. Missions to the Moon still hold a lot of prestige. Recent missions from Japan, China and India have been used by those countries as a way to demonstrate technological capability. Scientific knowledge to complement that of the Apollo era has also been obtained and international collaboration has been strengthened.

Download this video clip.Video player: moons_1_vid058.mp4
Copy this transcript to the clipboard
Print this transcript
Show transcript|Hide transcript
 
Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).

See also:

  • Jack Schmitt radio interview [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] . Hear the ‘robots or humans?’ opinion of Jack Schmitt (of Apollo 17) in this 2015 radio interview.
  • Luna 27 interview. David Rothery talks to James Carpenter of the European Space Agency - ESTEC about the planned Luna 27 lunar lander mission (3 minutes)
  • A lunar space station? The successor to the International Space Station could be in orbit close to the Moon, according to agreements emerging in 2017.
  • Why we go to the Moon An article by Paul Spudis dated October 2017.