NASA's Parker Solar Probe flew past the Sun on Christmas Eve, marking a significant milestone in space exploration. This autonomous mission raises questions about the role of humans in future space exploration, with some scientists arguing that robots could eventually replace astronauts.
On Christmas Eve, an autonomous spacecraft flew past the Sun, closer than any human-made object before it. Swooping through the atmosphere, NASA's Parker Solar Probe was on a mission to discover more about the Sun, including how it affects space weather at Earth. This was a landmark moment for humanity – but one without any human directly involved, as the spacecraft carried out its pre-programmed tasks by itself as it flew past the sun, with no communication with Earth at all.
But the success of these autonomous spacecraft – coupled with the rise of new advanced artificial intelligence – raises the question of what role humans might play in future space exploration. Some scientists question whether human astronauts are going to be needed at all. 'Robots are developing fast, and the case for sending humans is getting weaker all the time,' says Lord Martin Rees, the UK's Astronomer Royal. 'I don't think any taxpayer's money should be used to send humans into space.''The only case for sending humans is as an adventure, an experience for wealthy people, and that should be funded privately,' he argues. Andrew Coates, a physicist from University College London, agrees. 'For serious space exploration, I much prefer robotics,' he says. 'They go much further and do more things.' They are also cheaper than humans, he argues. 'And as AI progresses, the robots can be cleverer and cleverer.' But what does that mean for future generations of budding astronauts – and surely there are certain functions that humans can do in space but which robots, however advanced, never could? Robotic spacecraft have visited every planet in the solar system, as well as many asteroids and comets, but humans have only gone to two destinations: Earth's orbit and the Moon. In all, about 700 people have been to space, since the earliest in 1961, when Yuri Gagarin from the then-Soviet Union became the first cosmic explorer
SPACE EXPLORATION ROBOTS AI ASTRONAUTS SOLAR SYSTEM
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