More accurate is we can either go there or study it properly. A human mission to Mars would be entirely dedicated to keeping the crew alive; only remote probes can do real exploration for the foreseeable future.
I imagine it must be hard to participate in the conversation without simply pointing people at it, so I've decided to let you off the hook :-)
Still occasionally refresh hoping to find the sequel ...
True.
For example: suffocating, starving, dying of thirst, getting sick, suffer psychologic breakdowns, having their bodies deteriorate due to low gravity,...
Robots cannot do any of these things.
With more advanced robots that might be possible, but currently robots can only do, what you exactly told them to do. Depending on the real parameters, that might be enough, or not. And they certainly can get "sick" and broken as well. Hardware as well as software.
Which is hardly a disadvantage given that this includes not understanding that we send them on a mission with no return, and a high likelihood of something going horribly wrong.
> Also, they can "die" of thirst for energy as well.
True, but that energy can be collected via a few solar panels, or provided for decades from a relatively small nuclear battery. Human supplies for a prolonged stay cannot be collected on Mars, and take up alot of space and payload capacity for even a single human. And that's not including the fact that with humans we also have to take many many extra steps to be able to bring them back.
> but currently robots can only do, what you exactly told them to do
Depending on the situation, that can easily become necessary for humans as well. Astronauts on missions do very few things that ground control doesn't know about or didn't order them to do / plan ahead for them to do. Yes, this includes procedures during emergencies. Given the more severe resource constraints and even slimmer margins for error, the situation won't be any different on Mars.
Sorry if that sounds un-romantic, but the movies of brave buckaroos McGuyver-ing their way out of trouble on the Red Planet, relying on their wits, duct tape and tons of plot armor, isn't how this will play out in real life.
Yes, by human improvisation on the ground, with teams of engineers and scientists figuring out the exact steps the Astronauts had to perform, and transmitting these instructions up for the crew to implement.
Just like they would have done, and in fact did on many occasions, with a robotic probe that found itself in a pickle.
For much the same reason, robots are much better suited to do exploratory work on Mars, than humans.
We've proven that we can keep humans alive indefinitely in space with the International Space Station. Expanding that practice beyond Earth's orbit can and will go a long way in advancing our understanding of our solar neighborhood.
The initial human explorations of the planets will be more limited than the rover projects. But I think we are getting very close to being able to mount much more significant investigations of our closest neighbors. We just need to choose to go.
In contrast, there's enough atmosphere available on Mars to make it possible to build larger, pressurized structures and even use aerial flight, and more gravity than on the Moon.
The average surface pressure on Mars is a few millibars; from an engineering perspective it's the same as building pressurized structures in vacuum. If anything, it's more difficult, since your design will have to deal with wind loads and airborne dust.
Not to mention the phenomenal effort required to grow food there or transport who knows how much food per person to provide the kinds of safety margins you would want to avoid your first Mars astronauts starving.
BTW the Earth/Mars synodic period is not 18 months, but 26 months.
"In 2010 Stowe completed a more extensive ocean voyage, entitled 1000 Days at Sea: The Mars Ocean Odyssey—a journey that commenced on April 21, 2007, from the 12th St. Pier, Hoboken, New Jersey.[1] Stowe was the principal designer and builder of the Anne, a 70 ft (21.3 m), 60-ton (54,400 kg) gaff-rigged schooner which he sailed on this voyage.[1][2] The purpose of the enterprise was to remain on the open ocean, without resupply or pulling into any harbor, for a period of one thousand days, "
The food shelf-life problem is solved if you can rehydrate and cook foods, like this crew did. But a spacecraft has the cooking facilities of an office breakroom — just a microwave and source of hot water. And in that situation, where you need precooked heat-in-bag foods that stay shelf-stable for three years without refrigeration, we don't yet have the technology.
True, though the atmosphere there brings challenges of its own:
“Every year there are some moderately big dust storms that pop up on Mars and they cover continent-sized areas and last for weeks at a time,” said Michael Smith, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
https://www.nasa.gov/solar-system/the-fact-and-fiction-of-ma...
The martian atmosphere has less than 1% the pressure of Earths: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Mars
So for the purposes of building habitats, it might as well have none.
> and even use aerial flight
Yes, if we are talking about very small, very light robotic probes, that can rotate their blades 10 times faster than what's required on earth.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingenuity_(helicopter)#Mechani...
Not when I compare it with the range of activities a human can do on Mars.
Wouldn't we able be to build much better robots which would probably be more effective than humans for the same cost it would take to send a manned mission to Mars?
We wait decades to maybe get a tiny sample of a rock.
Robotic Mars exploration has made huge progress on what is a shoestring budget compared to boondoggles like Artemis or ISS. Just look at the improvement between Sojourner and Ingenuity and imagine what an adequately funded robotic exploration program could look like.
You may have seen China launching their youngest ever crew to their space station this week, and I noticed the quotes from the three crew members:
"I'm solely focused on the mission, on how to accomplish the mission successfully. I have to get prepared every minute, every second, and this was my aspiration when I joined the Air Force, and that aspiration has never changed," said Tang Hongbo, Commander.
"I feel that I am fully prepared physically, mentally and technically. I am confident to complete this upcoming flight mission. In fact, to be honest, I can't wait to carry out the mission now." - Tang Shengjie, Operator.
"Talking about the roles and responsibilities, I will try my best to complete the routine maintenance of the space station" - Jiang Xinlin, Operator.
One of those sounds less exciting than the others.
[1] https://news.cgtn.com/news/2023-10-25/China-unveils-Shenzhou...