RE: starship-design: Re: unmanned missions

[David Levine <david@actionworld.com>]

> ----------
> 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
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