Robots vs. Humans: Who Should Explore Space?; Your Future with Robots; Special Editions; by Francis Slakey and Paul D. Spudis; 8 Page(s)

"The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has a difficult task. It must convince U.S. taxpayers that space science is worth $16.25 billion a year. To achieve this goal, the agency conducts an extensive public-relations effort that is similar to the marketing campaigns of Americas big_gest corporations. NASA has learned a valuable lesson about marketing in the 21st century: to promote its programs, it must provide entertaining visuals and stories with compelling human characters. For this reason, NASA issues a steady stream of press releases and images from its human spaceflight program.

" Criticism of human spaceflight comes from many quarters. Some people point to the high cost of manned missions. They con_tend that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has a full slate of tasks to accomplish and that human spaceflight is draining funds from more important missions. Other critics ques_tion the scientific value of sending people into space. Their argument is that human spaceflight is an expensive stunt and that scientific goals can be more easily and satisfactorily accomplished by robotic spacecraft.