“I don't know why you're on Mars… But whatever the reason you're on Mars is, I'm glad you're there. And I wish I was with you.” That is part of the recorded message astrophysicist Carl Sagan left to the future humans on Mars, a few months before his death in 1966.
On average, Mars is approximately 140 million miles away from Earth; 250 million at its furthest point and 30 million at its shortest. If you were to take the shortest possible non-stop trip to Mars and back with our current technology, you would be in a spaceship for over a year, and one way would still take seven to eight months. What would make that journey worth it? Why is exploring Mars such a big part of the future of humanity? To answer these questions we must first
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Ask nearly any person what they think about sending people to Mars and they may counter with statements such as “there are so many problems on Earth already we need to fix first” or from another “We are fine on Earth, why spend billions to send people away?” But there is a slight problem. Earth will not always be “fine” for humans. Someday it will reach a point where it is not suitable for us. If famine, draught, wars, or disease don’t terminate us first, the entire planet will be consumed by the closest star, the Sun. That may not be for a few billion years, but if by that point the human race has not moved on, to put it plainly, humanity is screwed.
But let’s say right now at this very moment, a group of people were traveling at thousands of miles an hour to set foot on the Red Planet for the first time. Would you not be amazed at what we are now capable of? Tomorrow’s children would be inspired to reach for even further goals, pioneering the entire solar system. It would not take long (relatively speaking) before sustained utilization of the rest of the solar system is a regular thing.
Aside from the future of humanity racing to avoid its imminent doom, what would happen now, in our life time, if humans were actually sent Mars?
For one, Mars has great economic value. There is about 144 trillion square miles
(close to all the land area of Earth) of land that is available for development on Mars. Although there is not much of an
The topic of going to mars is highly discussed among scholars and ordinary people due to the reason that it is believed that Mars can support human life. Due to the fact, that global warming is on the rise has caused many scientists to believe that eventually the earth’s ecosystem will plummet, making life on earth for humans impossible. Many scientists argue that extra research on mars is needed due to the fact that the human race would eventually be forced to migrate outside of earth, if there is to be a continuation of the human race. However, the funding for such research is immense as it is, and it is projected that this “budget will increase by 20% by the government within the next few years.” This astounding increase in budget, has led to many uncertainties as to why the government funds such an expensive research for humans to leave earth when that money could be spent on the problems relating to global warming. Here on earth it is a fact that global warming is a serious issue regarding the future of the planet. Therefore, the government funds should be allocated to research ways to emit less carbon dioxide or to try and find cleaner and safer ways to create energy for the growing human population. Another reason to stop funding the research and exploration of mars is that most space exploration is caused by human curiosity. Human curiosity has led multi-million dollar institutions like NASA to explore the deep wonders of the world and discover new technologies which changed the world. Despite, the curiosity and the technologies that exploring the universe has brought, this interest is extremely expensive and time consuming. At times the curiosity led space exploration projects were made to look like a patriotic act due to political reasons. As a result, these projects were believed to be well-worth spent since it brought great
Soon Mars could become another livable planet with people walking around on it. Earth is being overpopulated fast and Mars could be the solution. Mars has territory that the Earth needs. Once scientists send a few people and learn about mars we can send more people up to Mars. Eventually mars will be just like Earth, with cities, farms and people roaming around. People going up to mars can build us a new planet.
This report will answer “Why humans should head to Mars?” with 3 questions; “What is Mars?”. “What is the history of Martian exploration?” and “What does the future hold for Mars?” Both internet and printed resources will be used.
Added to the economic costs to America, a venture to Mars causes substantial risk to the society. The environment and society are very important to human survival on Earth. Even though some people feel that exploring Mars may help understand the Earth better, and going to Mars will be a great scientific milestone, in my opinion exploring Mars is a bad idea. The atmosphere on Mars is about 100 times thinner than earth and it is not suitable for us to breath. It contains about 95% of carbon dioxide and little or no oxygen. This will make it very difficult for humans to survive there. Unlike Mars, which is not protected and is exposed to everything, the Earth is protected by the ozone layer. Exploring Mars will be dangerous to humans and very expensive to taxpayers. This will take years of planning and the mission will take years instead of days. The astronauts who go there may run out of oxygen and even fall sick. They will be unable to just return at any time. They have to wait until the earth aligns with Mars before they can return. All this could take months or even
Safely landing and returning humans from Mars, the closest Earth-like planet in our solar system, would be the biggest accomplishment for generations. It would capture the imagination of not only our nation, but the world. From the initial launch, to the six month transit, to the landing. would help to inspire new technologies for generations. The technology used to get the crew there and back, would eventually find it's way into the private sector and enhance to lives of the average person or household. Yes, it would be expensive: however the payoff would be worth the risk. When our space program was in its infancy, racing against the Russians, it suffered many setbacks. We lost several spacecraft to explosions on the launch pad, and lost crew members to horrific fires, as was the case in the Apollo program. Millions of dollars were poured into the space program during that time, a lot of money for that time period. Eventually it overcame its failures to succeed when it mattered.
The participants that are going to Mars are risking their lives. Since the trip to Mars will be 8 months long, and when they land on Mars the participants may only survive 68 days. These participants are risking their lives to go to Mars when this expedition could easily fail, by going off course ,losing power, or any various sequence of events. By going to Mars these participants may never walk again or run due to their bones weakening while in space. The participants that are possibly going to Mars may die or not be able to enjoy their
The distance from the Sun to Mars is 142 million miles! It would take about 2 1/2 years to get there. The size of Mars is 4,220 miles wide. To fill up Earth, it would take more than 6 Mars'. What surprises me the most about Mars is how large it is. It's also awesome how much bigger earth is than Mars. I'm surprised how some people become astronats. It would take about 5 years out of your life just to go somewhere you've never been before with people you might barely know. Three decades ago, we did not have the technology we have today. Todays technology has shown us that Mars is rocky, cold, and dry. I think that new technology will let us be able to go to mars. After that, we could find out more about more not just with rovers. I think it
Annotated Bibliography Works Cited “NASA's Journey to Mars.” Edited by Gary Daines, NASA, NASA, 1 Dec. 2014, www.nasa.gov /content/nasas-journey-to-mars/. This article is from the website controlled by NASA, the US government agency in charge of astronautical research and exploration. All of NASA’s activities are funded by federal taxes, and this website’s aim is to inform citizens about what the agency plans to do with that money. This article outlines NASA’s goals relating to Mars travels, including what technologies need to be developed, when the mission may occur, and why such travels are considered important.
Have you ever dreamt of going to Mars? Mars500 is an experiment that began in June 2010, the article “Mars? Almost!” explains how this experiment simulates the journey to Mars. There has never been a human on Mars, so astronauts don’t know what properties Martian soil may contain, the article “Mission to Mars” by Sheela Ramon gives an example of this. People from Earth are trying to get to Mars, because people could discover new elements and properties, astronauts could find alien-life forms or the remnants of alien-life forms and people are experimenting to train for the mission, as well as finding people that bond or work well together to achieve this.
If the Earth had some sort of mass destruction and was no longer usable we would need somewhere to go. And Mars is the closest place to go. If we didn’t go to Mars and save what we have then we will soon run out of resources here on Earth and then we will have nothing left. It is better to have everything done now than later when we can’t and don’t really have a chance to get anybody over there to start that new world.
Mars is a planet that we are still learning and discovering new things about. They have landed rovers on the planet and has discovered water under the surface of the planet. If they were to send humans to mars it would help discover more things that a robot couldn't do that a person can. With a person's view it would be better because the person would be able to describe it and show proof.
On 2010, President Obama first proposed that America will send human to Mars at the mid-2030s. There are several reasons that human may need to colonize the planet Mars. Due to the rapid growth of human population, we need to provide more land to human. Earth also has some uncertainties like Climate Change and loss of natural resource. As “How we’ll live on Mars” written by Petranek Stephen mention that human will live on Mars after 20 years. He consider the fact that living on Mars is an essential backup plan for humanity in several ways. Also the article “Real Human Exploration of MARS” written by Brunello Shupla discusses
There has been a lot of talk about mars. Out of all the potential options, most have settled that mars is the best for humans. The enthused Frank Stratford, in an article, says, “let’s do this thing…Let’s approach this with the benefits of six decades of spaceflight, push through the costs and in one risky megaproject of settling Mars, reach to the benefits of advancing… so that we and future generations can grow from our new discoveries on Mars.” Indeed, Despite inherent risk, colonizing mars is both a priority and a goal for the advancement of our species.
Mars exploration could be disastrous, one scenario that can occur is if the exploration brings back a deadly disease or diseases that no one can cure and can kill all of mankind. Natives died from diseases that were brought from the Europeans and many Europeans died from diseases from the Natives. Disease that we give to the life on Mars that kills all life on Mars or a disease from Mars bought to Earth that kills all
Mars; the fourth planet from the sun, and considering the vast expanse of the universe, Mars is only a mere 49 million miles from Earth. Mars has been the object of many speculative questions and hypothesis. Over the years, many have wondered if Mars ever sustained life, or if not, if it were possible to one day sustain life; i.e. Humans. There have been many missions to Mars in an attempt to answer those and other questions, like the three separate rover craft missions that will be discussed in this paper. Most recently, the idea to put humans on Mars has gained traction and scientists have begun the process to put that plan into motion. The goal of this paper is to provide more in-depth detail of those missions, their