Cremation, burial, they sound like you are assuming some colonization. Well, there won't be any colonization -- humans just can't hope to be in space very long without serious harm from low gravity and high energy cosmic rays.

You just are nearly totally missing just how hostile space is for humans. F'get the science fiction movies and TV shows, all of StarTrek, all of Star Wars, all of Armageddon, etc. and just look at the simple facts, e.g., low gravity, cosmic rays, the distances and energies involved, the lack of resources, etc.

Again, people on the moon or Mars will be in dangerous situations, and there will be a relatively high death rate. Due to the cold, the bodies will quickly freeze. Then in practice, due to the high cost in energy from any alternative, the frozen, dead bodies will be just piled up. There won't be any burials or cremations -- any such implies WAY more in colonization than is at all feasible in practice within the currently visible horizon.

All those artists' sketches of domes of settlements on the moon or Mars are just absurd, for now unscientific nonsense. In fact, now, for a human, any significant time on the moon or Mars or out in space is a death sentence from the medical problems caused by the time in low gravity and exposed to high energy cosmic rays. You seem to be having a just super hard time appreciating these simple, real facts and situations.

Beyond the horizon, assume some new sources of gravity, faster than light travel, warp drives, new sources of energy, etc., and maybe okay, but for now all that is not at all about reality but only fantasy.

Since there won't be any colonization and since the humans won't be very productive, the projects of the moon or Mars bases will be over quickly, and then the observation will be that a huge pile of money killed some people and created some plainly visible on the surfaces piles of frozen dead bodies, and little of any value.

So, the whole effort of humans on the moon or Mars will be seen as just piles of frozen dead bodies as evidence of human folly and will be offensive ethically, morally, politically, etc. and, thus, embarrassing, as I first stated.

Solution: As in the current Mars robots, have some clear scientific objectives, develop some good instruments, and fire the rockets. Develop the robots along with the instruments so that it will be easy for the robots to work with the instruments. If we can have self-driving cars on some city streets, then we should be able to develop some robots effective in space.

How would that work? From earth, send some orders for some work we know the robots are able to do. Then the robot executes as ordered, keeps records, and, within a few hours, sends back the records.

Net, for now and all the way to as far as we can see to a horizon, there is just no significant role for humans in space. Robots? Yes. Humans? No.

In simple, blunt terms, for any human to attempt to do anything significantly productive in space is, from the medical effects of low gravity and cosmic rays, just a death sentence. Sorry 'bout that.

I'm surprised the HN audience won't jump on the opportunity to have a big push in the associated robotics, automation, artificial intelligence, etc.

> Cremation, burial, they sound like you are assuming some colonization.

You don't need a full-blown colony for either of those. You just need a furnace or a shovel, respectively.

> Well, there won't be any colonization -- humans just can't hope to be in space very long without serious harm from low gravity and high energy cosmic rays.

We don't really know that; our only datapoints for long-term habitation are "Earth's surface" and "microgravity in low-Earth orbit". There's a pretty wide range of conditions in between that, and plenty of possibilities for mitigating both; that's indeed one of NASA's objectives in resuming manned lunar missions: to evaluate long-term habitation and actually collect that missing data.

> Solution: As in the current Mars robots, have some clear scientific objectives, develop some good instruments, and fire the rockets. Develop the robots along with the instruments so that it will be easy for the robots to work with the instruments. If we can have self-driving cars on some city streets, then we should be able to develop some robots effective in space.

That's what we already do, and it severely restricts the quantity and quality of science that's able to be done. It's a stopgap until we're actually able to get "boots on the ground".