Flights of fancy

On the eve of the first U.S. presidential debate, it is striking, if not surprising, how bland the candidates are when addressing America’s role in space, writes Lawrence Krauss, Foundation professor and director of the ASU Origins Project, in the New York Times.

“Why do we send humans into space,” asks Krauss, and “What are the really exciting scientific benefits of space exploration?”  Krauss admits to “being in love with Curiosity.”

Manned space flights typically catch the fancy of the American public, but such flights are costly and navigationally limited. Whereas unmanned flights, like the Curiosity rover currently on Mars and the Hubble Space Telescope, are less enthralling, but pay a huge scientific return on investment.

“For me, sending these probes where no man or woman has gone before is every bit as thrilling as imagining Captain Kirk being teleported down to an alien surface,” Krauss writes in “With Limited budgets, pursuing science smartly.”