N1EE wrote:

Have you read that Asimov story of Martian
children tearing up unmanned spacecraft
that land on Mars?

No, I missed that one.


The way every piece of hardware we put close
to on Mars breaks down, it makes you wonder.

Shucks, it's because of all this digital crapola they're using. If they went back
to tubes, it'd be no problem (of course, the vessel would have to be a LOT
bigger).


Jonathan Ganz wrote:

I think it's a good argument for sending people... some guy with
a pair of needlenose pliers and a screw driver could probably
fix it.

It would be definitely cooler to send a team of astronauts... but the life
support problems are not trivial. I'm not much of a gadget hound though, the
first moon landing made the best case for sending real people instead of gadgets.





Asimov was incredible. Too bad he died.

Well, he was old. He lived a long and wonderful life. His non fiction books on
science (and other topics... such as his annotated Bible) are a great gift.

Regards
Doug King