The loss of seven astronauts aboard the space shuttle Columbia this month brought home the risk that humans face when venturing into the hostile
environs beyond our sheltered planet, reviving the question of whether exploring the heavens should be left to unmanned missions
Another point for the "manned" side of the coin...
There's no computer that can be programmed with a true "sense of judgment" should there be unforseen complications or encounters. Just watching the
movie "Apollo 13" should be a good indicator that no *computer* could've solved the problems faced by the flight crew...It took *ingenuity*, not a
mass of digital coding.