re: NASA to Announce New Solar System Mission / Edit: Helicopter on a moon of Saturn!!!

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lol come on man. No kid looks at robots and thinks “Wow I wanna be just like that thing when I grow up!”

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How many current astronauts can you name.

Do you remember the excitement of the Mars landers as the entered the aptmosphere and the rocket crane lowered them, how exciting it was to see Pluto, when Cassini ended its mission and all of the epic pictures it gave us, the close up look of Jupiter from Juno?


Probes can and are exciting and can expire generations just as much as knowing there’s a human in space. They can go places we can’t, stay out there for years collecting data, really get exploration done and broaden our knowledge of the tiny spot of space we inhabit.

I get that the concept of humans in space is an appealing one and I’m all for it too. But don’t discount the value and excitement that comes with unmanned exploration. There’s nobody up there manning the Hubble Space Telescope and look at all we’ve gained from it.