The idea that people will die in the pursuit of space exploration is something we as an industry will have to accept if we want more than a few people in space at a time. Humans are flawed, and those flaws compound as our numbers grow. Accepting that fact should not, however, allow us to feel comfortable cutting corners on safety. That factor — safety — should always be of the utmost importance when designing vehicles, systems, and exploration architectures.

Cutting corners killed the Apollo 1 crew. Go fever killed the STS-51L crew. Complacency killed the STS-107 crew. Arrogance may well kill the next.

We must do better on the Moon, and especially on Mars.