The End of the Age of Astronauts
b"For many people, the single greatest human achievement of the 20th century happened on July 20th, 1969 when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon, and a\\xa0large proportion of those people probably hope for a similar spectacle on Mars in the coming decades.\\nBut aside from it being cool, is there actually any reason to send humans to these far-flung places?\\nBritain's Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees, and Astrophysicist & Science Writer Donald Goldsmith consider this very question in their new book 'The End of Astronauts: Why Robots are the Future of Exploration'.\\nThey joined Jonathan to discuss.\\nAlso joining Jonathan to run through the week's top science stories are Dr. Lara Dungan and Dr. Jessamyn Fairfield.\\nListen and subscribe to\\xa0Futureproof with Jonathan McCrea\\xa0on\\xa0Apple Podcasts\\xa0and\\xa0Spotify.\\n\\xa0\\xa0\\nDownload, listen and subscribe on the Newstalk App.\\n\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\nYou can also listen to Newstalk live on\\xa0newstalk.com\\xa0or on Alexa, by\\xa0adding the Newstalk skill\\xa0and asking: 'Alexa, play Newstalk'."