Because technology had not been invented yet to shield the astronauts from the solar radiation or provide a usable craft. It was a quick turnaround and back home.

Developing technology to protect man in space will be used on Earth. Arizona, like many of the desert regions on Earth, is amazingly ignorant of the radiation dangers of the desert. The technologies used in space will first be used here, then in the rest of the southwest, the Middle East and the Sahara.

Homes, offices and vehicles will incorporate solar shielding. It will be a multi-trillion dollar a year industry. Folks will refuse to buy a home or car without it. In the future, folks at 85 will look 50. Folks at 100 will look 65. Folks at 40 will look 23 - and all because of advanced solar shielding.

Radiation is the number one aging factor -bar none. UVC mutates DNA and speeds up the inferior replication process of cells. The body's own replication cycle loses intelligence with age, but it can be preserved by an order of magnitude, simply via proper shielding from certain wavelengths.

That's why manned space and associated technologies are so very important. It will make life a "paradise" on Earth, at least in comparison to the way it is now.

When craft are built with lightweight, charged, radiation filtering sandwich composites that can withstand even the fiercest solar burst - then Earth will be a big step closer to achieving its long sought goal - eternal youth.

The fountain of youth is not hidden away in a swamp in Florida, it is a simple process of protecting DNA in cells from certain radiation and externally sponsored mutation.

In the future when astronauts can live on the surface of the moon in shielded structures, or orbiting stations anywhere in our solar system, Earth will be living longer, healthier and happier.

The robot approach will leave Earth largely unprepared for the next jump up in solar variance and output - and the masses on Earth will suffer as a result. Whether this increase happens in 10, 100 or 1000 years makes little difference. It will happen. The technologies need to be funded and conceived now, for the future.

I'll do my part in trying to wake-up the masses to the issue. But for most folks, the sun is the sun, space is a purposeless dead end fixated on only by science-geeks, and money should be spent on FUN things like game consoles, IPODs and booze.

;-)