Delta Force
Banned
The United States had a major lead over the Soviet Union in computers and could afford to spend far more money on the space race if required. A robotic space program would probably be less expensive though, even in the 1960s, and it would of course pose no risk of harming astronauts. Perhaps it would continue into the 1970s with advanced missions (possibly including sample return) being launched to Mars and Venus and the original Interplanetary Grand Tour proposal being conducted.
Children could aspire to be the engineer or scientist who built the spacecraft and studied its information, and they might find computers more interesting than rockets. There would probably still be astronauts for low Earth orbit too, it's just that beyond that everything would be robotic. Perhaps the role of pilot and astronaut might merge in the popular imagination, at least for real life astronauts as opposed to those from science fiction.
I'm wondering how plausible this would be as a form of space exploration. Also, how would this impact NASA spinoffs and the like? Would the spinoffs be more related to the physical sciences and industrial and computing applications without such a focus on human health and survival in space?
Children could aspire to be the engineer or scientist who built the spacecraft and studied its information, and they might find computers more interesting than rockets. There would probably still be astronauts for low Earth orbit too, it's just that beyond that everything would be robotic. Perhaps the role of pilot and astronaut might merge in the popular imagination, at least for real life astronauts as opposed to those from science fiction.
I'm wondering how plausible this would be as a form of space exploration. Also, how would this impact NASA spinoffs and the like? Would the spinoffs be more related to the physical sciences and industrial and computing applications without such a focus on human health and survival in space?