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RE: starship-design: Re: unmanned missions
> ----------
> From: Lindberg[SMTP:lindberg@olywa.net]
> Sent: Thursday, February 12, 1998 8:27 AM
> Subject: starship-design: Re: unmanned missions
>
> >Well, I think we're far from manually dexterous enough robots to
> >perform
> >Galileo spacecraft. So much trouble from one stuck antennae that
> >would
> >take a guy with a wrench about five minutes to fix.
> ----------------------------------------------------
> The galileo spacecraft was not provided with any mechanisms to repair
> itself. On a large starship, small, versatile automatons for repair
> would be provided, complete with proper tools and parts for the job.
> The computers for control of the spacecraft systems could be made
> highly
> redundant, with each computer having primary responsiblity for one
> task,
> and secondary or supervisory control over several others.
> ************
>
Yeah, but like I was saying, it's one thing to say that such robots will
be provided, and quite another to do it. The level of sophistication
required for a mobile repair system that can handle the range of
eventualities that a human could handle is probably a long way off.
I would hate to spend $20 x 10^9 on a robotic interstellar mission only
to have it fail 40 AU's out from the target worlds because of a ruined
bolt that the robotic repair system doesn't have a spare for, but where
a human could have jury-rigged a replacement.
------------------------------------------------------
David Levine david@actionworld.com
Director of Development http://www.actionworld.com/
ActionWorld, Inc. (212) 387-8200
Professional Driver. Closed Track. Do not attempt.