Earthbound: The Obstacles to Human Space Exploration and the Promise of Artificial Intelligence

Deep space is a “serial killer” Deep space will be invariably deadly, reveal scientific studies of subjects from cells to humans. Astronauts cannot survive the intense radiation, weightlessness, toxic chemicals, disease, and other hazards beyond Earth orbit. Like old-time serial-circuit Christmas lights, in which losing one bulb extinguished all, a single medical catastrophe will end in astronauts’ death or disability. Any organ—heart, lungs, immune system, brain, or eyes—could fail. And the loss of one spacecraft system—oxygen, temperature, food, water, or radiation protection—will prove lethal.

Nevertheless, NASA and cosmic cheerleaders—politicians, aerospace companies, space travel enthusiasts, and billionaires with space visions—seek to send astronauts into the deadly hell of interplanetary space. They ignore the medical, as well as economic, technological, and political obstacles.

Earthbound instead advocates that deep space be explored by neuronauts — artificially intelligent robots collaborating with scientists. The data they gather could create a Virtual Cosmos enabling all of humanity to experience the wonders of the solar system. Earthbound documents the billions of dollars wasted on human space programs. And it questions whether human deep-space travel is ethical, given its unavoidable hazards.