#9 – Why send a robot to do a man’s job?

This latest failure to successfully send a robot to Mars reinforces the ideas of all Sci-Fi. Exploration of space must contain a human element. Robots and probes cannot adapt to changing, and uncertain conditions that exist on unexplored worlds. Sci-Fi has covered this idea from the beginning, with stories of lost probes, malfunctioning robots, and failed missions dependant on computers and other such technologies. 2001 is a perfect example of computer dependant missions gone awry.