Visual Apollo: A Graphical Exploration of Computer-Human Relationships

As NASA struggles with an uncertain national policy environment, it is seeking new combinations of human and robotic modes of exploration. During the Apollo era, establishing human presence in space was an integral part of NASA’s work. More recently, the Mars Exploration Rover missions have demonstrated how rich and successful remote exploration of a planetary surface can be. Space exploration is one of many examples of technical operations conducted in extreme environments that are raising new questions about the relative importance of human and remote presence. What does it mean to “be there?