Saturday 22nd September Sol 46

Mankind versus Machine #1

We have taken a break to watch the JPL flypast of the Shuttle Endeavour as it is brought on the back of a Boeing 747 to Los Angeles.  The last time I saw Endeavour was at Cape Canaveral, Florida, prior to the MSL launch in November 2011.  At that point Endeavour was starting to be prepared for transport. 

As we are working on a very successful robotic mission, this raises the question of ‘Mankind versus Machine’ – which is the best way to explore the Solar System?  The shuttle with astronauts proved necessary for fixing the Hubble mirror in low Earth orbit.