Would we need humans for an interplanetary economy?

[Cosmic Sailor]

Okay, basically the title. If we wanted to export He3 from the moon to the Earth for example, then why would we need humans for anything? Mission control could run the colony, maybe with a powerful AI as a backup, and it could be entirely crewed with robots. It would be cheaper than bringing massive life support systems, which would really help further in the solar system.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

1 hour ago, Cosmic Sailor said:

Okay, basically the title. If we wanted to export He3 from the moon to the Earth for example, then why would we need humans for anything? Mission control could run the colony, maybe with a powerful AI as a backup, and it could be entirely crewed with robots. It would be cheaper than bringing massive life support systems, which would really help further in the solar system.

If you imagine a future where we have built the tech for capable autonomous robots, then sure, why not. 

However - we are still orders of magnitude away from this. 

Also - there will be people who want to go, if for no other reason than the danger and prestige. 

So - purely automatic is possible but imo unlikely 

[kerbiloid]

Humans are simplified robots, which are easily programmed to use a shovel, a pickaxe, and at the same time manage various manual controls and visual interfaces.

Also, you can easily combine the advantages of both methods by implanting a cheap control chip into the human labourer, and remotely managing him in general, letting him operate with his body in the way, optimal for the assigned task.

[Nuke]

the other way around is more feasible with near present tech. for asteroid mining i imagine a small number of humans managing a big swarm of probes, unmanned transfer vehicles, and mining machinery.  an industrial station would be the center of activity, placed in an orbit where it can get to a lot of asteroids. multiple stations could be set up to handle different parts of the belt. most of your ore, final products, and machinery are going to spend most of their time in transfer orbits. it might take years to break down any one asteroid enough to start seeing a profit. so you manage several in parallel. its a lot of management and maintenance, a shirt sleeve environment where the only space walks are for station maintenance. you might have an intercept team to set up asteroids for autonomous mining ops, but they are going to spend most of their time in transfer orbits and probibly only go to the station for maintenance and resupply.

Edited December 4, 2023 by Nuke

[Shpaget]

Moon (2009) explores why you need human presence.