Sobre o valor inspiracional e dilemas éticos na exploração espacial [vídeo em inglês]

A plataforma Mashable publicou esta semana um vídeo onde o reconhecido astrofísico Neil deGrasse Tyson comenta dilemas morais da exploração espacial.

“Are you only interested in scientific discovery? Send a robot. It’s cheaper. You don’t have to bring them home. You don’t have to feed them, at least not food. (…) If you only care about science, then there’s no rational reason to send humans. Really. For the cost of sending a human, you can send 100 robots. And robots are getting better, smaller, cheaper, faster, smarter, all of the above. But here’s the catch:

I’ve never seen a ticker tape parade for a robot. I’ve never seen a high school named after a robot. I never saw a kid read a book about a robot and say, “Gee, I want to be that robot one day.” There’s value of human inspiration. It’s less tangible than the scientific results of an experiment. It’s more emotional, it’s more philosophical, it’s more human. If we send one of ourselves, on the frontier, where it’s dangerous but interesting, and they can make discoveries and they come back, I’m gonna go listen to that person, I want to read the book that that person wrote, I want to interview that person on the news. That person will be a hero to our civilization and that has value. (…)”