Next Generation Astronauts

[Holliday]

Trying to put aside my belief that NASA is just a front for Americas true Space Agency, and that our space travel capabilities are far beyond what we're told.

Assuming everything we're told is up-to-date. Would it be plausible that in next few decades man won't actually return to space, but instead robots controlled directly by man.

I realise technically this doesn't sound ground-breaking as we've already sent plenty of robots/vehicles into space. But what I'm suggesting is with the ever developing humanoid robots e.g Asimo, combined with augmented/virtual reality, and perhaps most importantly the recent announcement of successful quantum teleportation of data. Would it be plausible that humanoid robots will be sent into space to then be controlled back on earth directly by humans hooked up to 'virtual/augmented reality', with quantum teleportation providing a live feed of what the robot sees and instant mimicking of any action the controller wishes to do, pick up an object, drill this, do that, etc.

The advantages being there is zero risk for human life, robots won't need oxygen, food, radiation or electrical protection, and they can travel potentially forever.

Orrrrr am I just babbling?

[klytus]

I would have thought there would still be a problem in the time the signal takes to reach the robot. For instance "In June 2004, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft began orbiting Saturn and transmitting images to Earth. The closest distance between Saturn and Earth is 746 million miles.

The signal took 80 minutes." (from yahoo answers)

so even at the speed of light there would still be a delay unless the speed of light can be broken?.....

interesting thoughts

[Holliday]

so even at the speed of light there would still be a delay unless the speed of light can be broken?.....

interesting thoughts

I would attempt to try and explain it but no doubt I would make a fool of myself so I'll just link an article which explains it;

Quantum teleportation achieved over ten miles of free space

So the way I understand it there is no delay and the transmission is sent instantly.

[pbyrne]

I believe that humans will still go into space, but with the NASA cutbacks I think that less Americans will be going, unless they pay for passage on another country's rockets.

I confidently predict that the first people to set foot on Mars will be Chinese. They are pressing ahead with manned flight and are making rapid advances in their understanding of what it takes to transport men over great distances.