that's interesting...

[jay]

Early results...
Remote-rovers, terrestrial-controlled (w/delays) observation rate = 0.12
Remote-rovers, Mars-controlled (w/o delays) obs rate = 1 (normalized)
Spacesuited human, obs rate = 5
Shirtsleeve - free human geologist, obs rate = 27

There are too few datapoints to say definitively, but these results imply that a local spacesuited human has something like 40x the science productivity of a Earth-controlled rover...

Comments

[hopeforyou.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I wonder what can be done to shrink the gap between a spacesuited human and a free human geologist. Any ideas? What are the most limiting factors to using the suits?

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

What are the relevant cost factors for Mars? IIRC Sojurner and Pathfinder cost about 100 Million US. That would make a manned missed cost-effective (in some sense) if it came in at less than 4 billion... I think a Mars mission is more like 20 to 40 billion?

[hopeforyou.livejournal.com]

Hah. So the nay sayers can put *that* in thier "robotic missions only" pipe, and smoke it.