The mars exploration program
The mars exploration program was formed in 1993 under the national aeronautics and space exploration in America. Primarily, the program has been funded over the years with a mission to ensure that more information is discovered. In total, there have only been 18 successful exploration missions by NASA to mars, which is considered to be the only planet that can sustain life (Siebach, 179). In essence, NASA has spent a lot of resources in the experiments. Alot of time has been spent on scientific analysis of evidence that has been gathered from mars. In essence, there is a necessity to analyze whether it is likely to colonize the other planets like Mars and mainly whether the funds should be spent on these missions.
Analysis of Facts
In essence, the American projects under the mar’s exploration program have been instrumental in the discovery of several things about other planets. In reality, one of the essential findings is that only mars come close to the atmospheric needs of the human race in comparison to the other planets. Essentially, this unearthing is why the experts tasked under this program have narrowed down on mars as a planet.
Notably, this program has since 1993 received a budgetary cut of 40% of the American allocation (Levine, 117). This amount shows just how vital the mission has been for the United States of America. The mission has focused on exploring and scaling the planet to ensure the collection of evidence such as rocks, soil, and water discovery. The discovery of water, in particular, is crucial as it indicates that life can be modified and made possible in this outer space planet. Mostly, there have been attempts by Russian and American space companies to scale mars and to explore the possibilities of life. However, in the several missions done by both sides, only a few have involved human landing on the mars. The astronauts have made it in the past to land and to set robots on the ground.
However, most of the missions have been done remotely using robots such as the rover. Primarily, the rover has been used to collect and store specimens from mars while sending back images of the environment on this planet. This mission of collection of samples is in preparation for a 2020 mission that is meant to collect the samples collected in by the robot and bring it back to earth for testing (Siebach, 179). In essence, the reason why the examination cannot be done in mars is because of the technical inability to transport laboratory equipment to mars, which indicates that it’s almost impossible to carry objects that weigh too much because of safety and economic reasons. For instance, for every kilogram, one would plan to launch it would require 99 kilograms of fuel to ensure the spacecraft lands on Mars (Bajpai et al., 230). This fact is a clear indication of the investment that has been made over the years to ensure that the missions are successful.
Nonetheless, it is essential to understand that these missions are not a one day event since, the least time taken in the various tasks, including their planning, is between 10 to 30 years. It is significant to consider that the time taken to travel from earth to mars is 150 to 300 days, which is mostly dependent on the alignment of the two planets to each other (Chang, 76). Additionally, the shortness of this journey is determined by the rapidity of the spaceship and the precise target. The speed is determined by the quantity of energy burnt. In essence, these facts only indicate that this program is costly as well as risky.
The Goals of the Program
Primarily, several objectives have driven the mission of exploration of the planet mar. For instance, there has been a persistent necessity to answer various questions of the subsistence of man on earth. Due to the ever-rising number of calamities such as pandemics and the potential risk of overpopulation on earth, some individuals have claimed that there is a need to make sure that more options are found (Siebach, 179). One of the alternatives is finding more land to colonize and offload the human population. In essence, the continued degradation of the environment and climatic change could also be one of the many considerations of finding outer planets to colonize to evade the foreseeable danger.
Hence, the first objective of this mission is to determine whether there has been the existence of life in the past or the present on mars. Before concluding that human beings can live on Mars,’ there has to be evidence that life existed before. The approach utilized by the program is called “follow the water” since water is viewed as one of the elements that support growth (Haberle et al., 118). In essence, the Martian atmosphere is thinner than that of earth. It is surrounded by gases such as carbon dioxide, which forms 95.32%, molecular nitrogen, which accounts for 2.6%, and 1.9% being argon (Levine, 113). Also, the atmosphere has traces of water vapour, oxygen, and other noble gases. The existence of water vapour and oxygen could be part of the hope of life. However, these traces are too minimal that they cast doubt on the worthiness of the investment.
Additionally, the other goal has been to determine and characterize the Martian climate. This characterization includes finding out the past characteristics of the environment on this planet as well as the present climate (Haberle et al., 111). In essence, discovering these two scenarios could help determine whether the climatic conditions have been improving or worsening. However, the absence of evidence of large masses of water and little traces of water vapour indicates that the chances are that climatic conditions are not about to get better in mars. The climate appears to be hostile. Notably, there are occurrences of dust storms and seasonal changes in ice caps.
There is also the need to understand the geology of this planet in comparison to that of earth. Primarily, the aim is to study the movement of crust and phenomena such as volcanoes. These phenomena are regarded as what has shaped earth over the years. The discovery of these occurrences could show where the formation of volcanic soil, which is suitable for agriculture, may have happened (Haberle et al., 109). The ultimate objective, however, is to prepare for exploration and putting humans on Mars in what has been romanticized by the film creators over the years as the mass exodus.
Challenges and Criticism
Arguably, Mars exploration has been marred by the highest cases of failure. These failures include high levels of engineering failures and what has been termed as lousy luck for lack of better terms to describe the challenges. For example, one of the launches by a ‘Russian program was marred by a terrible crush that saw the death of one astronaut.
Additionally, this planet’s atmosphere has been estimated to be 100 times thinner than that of earth. This one is a high gap in the difference that cannot be possibly modified unless the program was to take the direction of changing human beings themselves. For instance, the presence of superoxides makes it impossible to survive (Lasne et al., 979). The minimal levels of oxygen can neither support life and if that happens, then large populations cannot be possibly helped by the conditions in the environment of mars.
On the other hand, there is the absence of the ozone layer in mars, which means that one would need protective gear to avoid the effects of contact with sun rays. These facts describe an extremely hazardous which would require a lot of funding and time as well as research to modify. Additionally, it’s a risky and more expensive mission of changing the environment as well as human beings, which could mean the deaths of people.
Additionally, the most significant limiting factor for this program by NASA is resources. For example, the mission to send humans on mars alone would cost an estimated 500 billion dollars (Lasne et al., 980). This amount is without the addition of the funds that have already been spent on the various missions of exploration and the setting up of stations on earth and mars for transmission and collection of data.
Precisely, as Leroy Chiao, a commander of the space station put it, “there was an estimation that 2010 NASA allocation would have to go up by USA 3 billion.” (Hassanalian et al., 77) As estimated, the program will need USD 6 billion to take the first four people to Mars. In essence, this includes USD 450 million to improve landing, USD 425 to set up satellites, USD 1800 million to fund follow up among other allocations (Lasne et al., 985). Significantly, these amounts of money could be more useful in other projects that are much needed for the improvement of life. Further, it is vital to note that the direct benefits of this undertaking are farfetched. For instance, considering that some of the missions have taken 30 years to bear results, it means that the exploration could take hundreds of years to bear the consequence of the first human population on the surface of Mars.
These benefits are outweighed by the extreme cost of these studies and exploration. Further, the travelling ‘to the outer space like the moon mission and that of the mars are little competitions to display power and muscle among the leading countries such as Russia, China, and the USA (Hassanalian et al.,78). That said, prestige seems to be overweighing the reason for and development of particular countries. It is important to note that these resources could help in changing the lives of people in the USA and worldwide.
Arguably, there have been minimal investments in scientific research that aims at finding solutions to various problems that are existent on earth. For instance, the finding of cure for diseases such as cancer could go a long way toward improving the lifespan of human beings on earth by eradicating such terminal illnesses. Moreover, it is crucial to note an upsurge in the number of life-threatening pandemics on earth. For instance, the entry of the COVID 19 pandemic only indicates that human beings are far from managing the problems on earth.
Furthermore, it is apparent that for life to be made a possibility on mars, more study needs to be completed, which is made impossible by the distance from the earth to mars. The inability to transport equipment and more scient8ists and to set a permanent station on its surface indicates that the colonization of the planet could be a pipe dream.
Additionally, trying to modify the conditions on mars would cost more than it is needed to manage the conditions such as pollution that have been causing problems on earth. In essence, one of the reasons for the desire to move to Mars is the population increase on the earth. This increase is a controllable situation that does not necessarily need such an expensive and time-consuming mission.
It is essential to consider that if there exists life on mars, it would mean that there are communities of unknown creatures already living on the planet. These creatures could be more adapted to the terrain and atmosphere of this planet. Hence, any attempt to colonize the planet would be met with unprecedented resistance and hostility against the human explorers (Lasne et al., 972). This fact indicates extreme disadvantages that could cost the human race more than it would cost to take measures such as protection of the environment and the advance of cures. The USA should not necessarily invest this much in the exploration of mar.
Conclusion
In essence, the exploration of mars has been a topic of discussion for many years. This discussion involves the consideration of the existence of life on the surface of mars through remote research by the use of robots and satellites. Primarily, the mission to colonize mars has seen a high level of investment with a 40% allocation to the program. Nonetheless, it is vital to note that the damages of this mission prevail over the advantages that could be met. This fact indicates that probably the USA should not spend as much on the program.