Not only is robotic spaceflight cheaper and safer than human spaceflight, it is more scientifically productive. As of 2010, robotic rovers have provided us with more than thirteen years of scientific observations from Mars; combined, the apollo missions spent less than a month on the Moon. Humans can travel much faster across extraterrestrial surfaces than robots can, but we cannot compete with robots in terms of the total amount of data collected. Astronomer James Van Allen went so far as to say, “Almost all of the space program’s important advances in scientific knowledge have been accomplished by hundreds of robotic spacecraft.”
Yet why do all of us old enough to remember July 20, 1969, recall where we went that day, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans beings to set foot on the moon, but nobody except those involved and a handful of space diehards remembers July 4,1997 January 4, 2004 or January 25, 2004, the dates the rovers Sojourner, Spirit, and Opportunity landed on Mars? Why are there more than a dozen schools named after Neil Armstrong but no Sojourner Middle School or Spirit Elementary?
Robotic spaceflight fails to captivate us because it lacks human drama. Rovers are magnificent technical accomplishments, but that’s what they are–technical. The sight of human beings speaking to us from the Moon is soul stirring, an expression of the greatest dreams and abilities of our species; the Mars rovers look like toys puttering around a rocky desert.
In the contest of passage 1 Lines 13-22 ( Yet why do all of use… Spirit Elementary?) serve to
a.siginal a shift in perspective
b. challenge a decision
c. recollect an earlier era
d. point out an injustice
e. introduce a digression
Thank you