Our early ancestors migrated across plains and jumped from continent to continent. Our more recent relatives set forth on great voyages of exploration, by ship and by caravan. For the past hundred years, we have been able to don deep-sea diving gear and space suits to explore places that once were inaccessible. We have already taken our first tentative steps off our home planet, and are on the verge of becoming a spacefaring species.

Human Flexibility and Creativity

Space exploration involves a finely crafted partnership between robots and people. Robots are useful in well-defined, repetitive, and predictable situations. Robots have nearly unlimited stamina and never become bored, fearful, or angry. They are not, however, flexible and creative. People can organize information in many different ways, deal with ambiguity, take advantage of unexpected opportunities, use their intuition, and apply common sense. In light of the...