Authors from Pitch Avatar team explain why, in their view, we shouldn’t be upset about the slow pace of human expansion into space.
Venusian-Martian Disappointment
Those familiar with our past texts know that we are big fans of scientific (as well as quasi-scientific and not quite scientific) fiction. Together with the heroes of books and films, we have been “living” on other planets since childhood. Like many other fans of this genre, we sincerely believe that, in the future, humanity will become space-faring.
However, it is clear that the time when humanity confidently colonizes a planet other than its native one won’t come anytime soon. So far, unmanned vehicles have visited far more celestial bodies than people. “Stop sending robots into space! Let’s quickly send people to other planets and build scientific stations and colonies there!” — such calls are often heard from space fans, including some quite influential figures.
So, we believe there’s no need to be upset about the “dominance of robots” in space, nor is there a need to rush the construction of extraterrestrial colonies. In essence, we aren’t refraining from traveling to other planets or abandoning the Moon because of laziness or greed, but rather because we’ve realized that there’s nowhere suitable for us to go — at least, not yet.
Early science fiction assumed that the planets of the Solar System were, to some extent, suitable for life. Not all of them, but those within the “Earth group” — Venus and Mars — carried high hopes. Just think of Herbert Wells or Edgar Burroughs. Venus, hidden beneath clouds, was imagined as having humid tropics, much like Earth’s Jurassic or Cretaceous periods. Mars was thought to be a desert, sometimes scorching, sometimes freezing. Even among reputable scientists, many believed these planets were inhabited and suitable for human colonization.
Reality turned out to be disappointing. Venus is too hot and Mars is too cold. Venus bombards its surface with acidic rain from an extremely dense atmosphere, while Mars, with its thin atmosphere compared to Earth, still manages to unleash terrifying dust storms. The moons of Jupiter and Saturn, despite being similar in size to terrestrial planets, have also failed to meet expectations.
It turns out that humans cannot live in any world in the Solar System without complex and cumbersome life-support systems. Moreover, our current level of technological development does not provide reliable long-term protection from radiation. The dream of wandering around Mars in lightweight space suits remains just that — a dream. If Venus had tropical conditions and Mars were merely as harsh as Antarctica (even twice as bad), we would already be there. But, unfortunately, that’s not the case.
Therefore, if we set emotions aside and reason, things in space exploration are progressing as they should. We are still in the early stages, where we are essentially exploring our surroundings and setting future goals. At this point, it makes perfect sense to begin with hardware research, then send robots, and only afterward — astronauts.
Why do people need to be on "Discovery"?
Let’s recall the classic of science fiction – the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey”. One of the main plotlines of the film is the conflict between the crew of the spaceship “Discovery” and the artificial intelligence HAL 9000. The conflict would not have arisen if “Discovery” was an unmanned vehicle. According to the plot, devised by Arthur Clarke and Stanley Kubrick, HAL 9000 was perfectly capable of conducting practically the same research program as humans. But in the storyline, he didn’t have the tools to maintain and repair the ship. So, nobody is stopping us today from creating ships equipped with AI capable of “self-service”.
One of the most successful spacecraft designers in history, Konstantin Feoktistov, once noted that, from a practical and scientific perspective, most of the valuable information we obtained during space exploration came from unmanned devices. Human space flights, on the other hand, proved necessary primarily for servicing spacecraft and equipment. They did, of course, provide useful insights into the behavior of the human body during space travel. Based on this, Feoktistov — who himself had been to space — suggested that we should focus primarily on developing more advanced space robots.
Considering what we know about the Solar System, Feoktistov’s perspective should perhaps be embraced as the primary direction for astronautics. Adapting a robot to the extreme conditions of space, other planets, satellites, and asteroids is significantly easier than adapting a human.
Of course, this does not mean that manned space programs should be completely discontinued. However, for successful settlement of other planets and flights into deep space, several problems must be addressed, with human vulnerability being the primary concern. The key takeaway from our manned space flights is a sobering reality: in their current form, these missions are detrimental to human health.
Under the influence of space radiation, astronaut erythrocytes deteriorate more than 50% faster than they do on Earth, leading to the risk of “space leukemia.” Furthermore, weightlessness has adverse effects on the condition of muscles, bones, and cartilage. This, so to speak, is just the tip of the iceberg. For successful and sustainable human colonization of space, we must prioritize the development of a new generation of inhabited space technology that is safer and more comfortable. Additionally, significant efforts should be made in biohacking to better adapt humans for space travel.
And for now, as the problem of human safety in space remains unresolved, we still have robots at our service. Fortunately, advancements in artificial intelligence can provide space research with fundamentally new types of unmanned vehicles.
So far, robots have mostly been limited in their responses to a small set of programs and commands that come from Earth at a slow pace. However, the next generation of space automatons, currently in development, will be equipped with AI. This upgrade will enable them to perform complex actions comparable to those of humans, which will be especially valuable in emergency situations that require quick reactions. Such space robots will be capable of working autonomously for as long as they exist, “inventing” action programs for themselves if humans cannot provide tasks. Naturally, these machines will be more versatile and designed for self-service, repair, and even the ability to write and rewrite their own code. This means no more “dying” due to dust-covered solar panels, broken wheels, blown fuses, or programmer errors.
In case readers have forgotten, we want to reiterate that we are convinced that, sooner or later, humans will colonize and populate other planets. However, for this to happen, the near future of space exploration needs to be entrusted to AI robots. They will be the ones to study the worlds of the solar system in detail and prepare conditions for landing and habitation there.
However, why are we only talking about the Solar System? Sooner or later, we will discover a way to travel between stars and set off to explore potentially habitable worlds in our galaxy. Presumably, by that time, we will have quite a solid list of prospective targets. Surely, among the vanguard of research groups and together with the colonists, these worlds will be visited by various AI robots, without which, by that time, it will simply be impossible to imagine space travel.
