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H-K_47 t1_j6mwkje wrote

Very expensive and very risky. We don't yet have a rocket or crew capsule capable of sending humans that far yet, let alone bringing them home. So robots have been much cheaper and safer in the meantime.

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mytrickytrick t1_j6mwq9r wrote

Robots don't need food, water, ... For the long voyage there. They don't need a return trip back home. They can do work in more hostile environments than we can. All of that means that robots can start working there much earlier than humans can.

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Apophis_406 t1_j6mxq3u wrote

Imagine a plane ride that takes a year, but infinitely more dangerous. Once you arrive to your destination you find there are no return flights, and it is nothing like the tourism brochure pictured at all. That’s why we send robots.

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mmscichowski t1_j6n0geh wrote

Now imagine boats and it’s just 400 years ago.

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REF_YOU_SUCK t1_j6n1c4r wrote

not really.

When the explorers landed in the new world, there was still air to breath and food to hunt & forage. There was also an abundance of resources to build shelters and native populations who were in some instances willing to trade.

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mmscichowski t1_j6n1io2 wrote

Maybe… but good luck getting back. If you missed the next boat you just had to live with it.

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League-Weird t1_j6ne7fa wrote

Imagine deciding that anything is better than the persecution or life you had in civilization and getting on a boat where you had a 25% chance of dying from a number of issues. Then you get to land and have to have the knowledge needed to thrive either by yourself or with a group of strangers. Not sure how many survived the mayflower voyages.

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ryan__fm t1_j6n3faf wrote

There are certainly humans who would sign up to fly to Mars, even if there was no return.

Besides the fact they didn't have robots as an alternative, there are huge financial differences... a boat doesn't cost billions of dollars, and there was a potentially massive upside to discovering a new trade route or undiscovered land that could be conquered and civilized/pillaged. We already know enough about Mars to know there's probably not a lot there, it'd be like me taking a boat to Antarctica knowing there was no way to get home.

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[deleted] t1_j6mzd8p wrote

[deleted]

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Apophis_406 t1_j6n03p0 wrote

Radiation, potentially missing the gravity well of mars and flying off into infinity, micro meteorites, electronic failures, need me to continue?

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YrPrblmsArntMyPrblms t1_j6mwjyp wrote

For research. Humans can't stay there as long as robots can. Well, not yet.

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Greedy-Creme-995 t1_j6mwjcq wrote

Because we do not have the technology established on Mars right now to sustain life or bring them back so basically they would be there just to die.

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Michelle_In_Space t1_j6n2uy6 wrote

I want to say that we do have the technology, but it is hideously expensive at the moment so we do not do it.

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steven447 t1_j6mwvt2 wrote

That is the endgame, but right now that is logistically impossible. It would be a one way trip that would take at least a year to complete. You would need a ton of supplies to have the crew survive.

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drunk_and_orderly t1_j6mwp1p wrote

At the present moment there isn’t much benefit to sending up humans. It would essentially be sending them there to live out their lives on Mars. For now it makes more sense to just continue collecting data until we have more advances in technology.

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_Denzo t1_j6mzyu7 wrote

Well would you like to be on a cold, dead planet with resuply only every 2 years? If something goes wrong nobody can help you, it’s dangerous. Even the robots struggle there like look what happened to spirit, opportunity and InSight

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Varsect t1_j6mz8ic wrote

Because of our biology. Robots can do just fine with ×3 times less gravity and no water and food.

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Bigram03 t1_j6mzn9w wrote

The technology's to send humans to Mars (either to live or return) do not exist, and are still many decades off despite what Musk saya.

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DNathanHilliard t1_j6n06f5 wrote

Because we don't have a human rated craft that can support people all the way there and back yet.

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Sithisilith t1_j6n08x0 wrote

Way too expensive, a million things that could go wrong, and if things do go wrong, we probably can't return the human home. Also no guarantee of a return trip even if they make it to Mars. It's much cheaper to send robots, not to mention that it doesn't risk anyone's life.

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Dizzy_Eye5257 t1_j6n0b1f wrote

Risk and death probability. Plus, robots can easily sent back a lot more information

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ShankThatSnitch t1_j6n0jw8 wrote

Because we can't yet. A robot can easily make a 6-7 month trip to mars, with no expectation of coming home.You only need a small craft. No life support. No food. No water. No toilets. No medicine.

With a human, you need a large ship, with all of the above, and presumably the capability to launch off Mars and make it back to earth.

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Neuyerk t1_j6mz5fw wrote

iRobot sends robots to humans all the time!

They work okay.

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MSY2HSV t1_j6n12dk wrote

The rule of thumb in space travel is that sending a human costs 1000 times as much as sending an unmanned craft for the same mission. Add on to that the fact that going to Mars would be an INCREDIBLY stressful mission for a human taking a very long time to get there, would require tech we don’t have yet (but is being developed), and would be incredibly risky too. It will happen at some point, no doubt about it. But man we are not there yet.

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black-rhombus t1_j6n163l wrote

It’s too dangerous. Successfully landing on Mars is not a guaranteed.

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space-ModTeam t1_j6n1pnd wrote

Hello u/MatthewCollinsN83, your submission "Why do we send robots to Mars but not humans?" has been removed from r/space because:

  • Such questions should be asked in the "All space questions" thread stickied at the top of the sub.

Please read the rules in the sidebar and check r/space for duplicate submissions before posting. If you have any questions about this removal please message the r/space moderators. Thank you.

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HarbingerKing t1_j6n1wpg wrote

Simple: nobody wants to live there. Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids.

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Michelle_In_Space t1_j6n2ohr wrote

It is easier to send robots. It is more risky and expensive to send humans. If there is failure with humans, the political cost is huge. We will eventually send humans to Mars but the way needs to be prepared to do so.

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Navydad6 t1_j6n2rbk wrote

Short answer... no idea if humans would survive the trip.

Probes can get as much info at a fraction of the cost... and risk.

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then00bgm t1_j6n4wkj wrote

A human team sent would need massive amounts of food and water, enough for the whole trip plus extra so if anything goes wrong. They’ll need first aid supplies and a pharmacy worth of medicine for any ailments they might develop during the mission. If there are any female crew members, they’ll need multiple years worth of pads and tampons.

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