"Darren New" <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote in message
news:4adb5a5c$1@news.povray.org...

> > it makes absolutely
> > zero sense to me to be sending a *manned* craft for such a mission.

> Except that when the fate of the entire world hangs in balance, having
> people there who can make decisions rapidly might be the difference
between
> 8 people dying and extinction of the race.

Except that, even in these movies, the only purpose those on board serve is
to screw things up. How hard would it be for NASA to crash an unmanned craft
into the sun? All you need is 1960's dumb technology for that, scaled up
accordingly for the payload. The complexity and the number of fatal fail
points go drastically up when you need life support for such long term
missions, even if when you have emotionally, intellectually and physically
rock solid astronauts. I haven't seen the movie - do the space cowboys in
this movie do anything that truly requires human presence, or is it the same
old "turn two switches simultaneously on in slow motion to start the timer
that detonates the bomb and run for your life" ritual? (Well, I gather they
all die, so maybe not the last part).

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