Last night I watched the first episode of Cosmos. Having read the book while in high school, I was excited to watch the video of Cosmos, especially as I’ve heard a ton of good things about it. Plus, space absolutely fascinates me. While deciding on possible college majors while in high school, Astrophysics/Astronomy kept bouncing around in my head. Ever since I can remember, I loved staring up into the night sky and watching the stars and imagining the possibilities of all that vast space. During my first drive down to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, I remember pulling over during the night somewhere in Virginia and just staring up at the night sky, having never seen it that clearly from the light-polluted sky of Boston.
Anyway, after balancing out the difficulties of learning about Astrophysics/Astronomy, combined with my false assumption that I’d be stuck in a desert somewhere with a small team staring out at the night sky, I decided to major in something a bit more practical but that I still enjoyed (Business, though looking back, I should’ve double-majored in Economics and Computer Science). But I still remained fascinated by space and spent many hours reading books and admiring high-resolution shots from the various telescopes and and other devices we send out in space.
Mars, baby, Mars
While watching Cosmos, which takes us on a journey through the known universe, from its very edge, back through to our galaxy, our solar system, and finally our planet, it struck me how little we’ve travelled in the past 40 years since the first moon landing. To many, it seems like we went to the moon and then flatlined in terms of space exploration progress.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I know we’ve made tons of advances in this area over the past 40 years, but in the grand scheme of the universe, it’s really difficult to think we’ve made it very far. Currently, we have capabilities to go to Mars. There are an immense amount of variables, for instance we don’t know the effect of such a voyage on the human body, or even if we could survive outside the zone around the Earth.
Ensuring that any astronauts who make the trip have enough air, food, and water to get to Mars and back is not a simple hurdle. The logistics of such an adventure are overwhelming to any one person. But, today we have all the capabilities to plan out and solve these logistics. We may fail, massively, but not trying is an even bigger failure.
Such a mission would likely require global collaboration, as the costs, time, energy, and man-power required to run the trip are likely too high a burden for any one country to take on. But imagine if it happens. It would spark a new era of humanity, one where we work together to achieve an awe-inspiring goal, the first human on Mars.
Goosebumps ran up and down my arms just thinking about it.
The technological and logistical progress we’d make by going on such a trip would alone be worth the cost. The really big hurdle to cross is the danger to the human astronauts who make the trip. This danger is not to be taken lightly, but neither should it be seen as an impossible impediment. I can’t speak for any potential astronauts who’d make the trip, but going off my gut feeling, if I had gone along a career path that would make me a viable candidate for a trip to Mars, I would be more than willing to put my life on the line. I’m sure there’s a talented crew who’d say the same, the value and progress of going to Mars would outweigh the real possibility of not coming back.
What about you? If you were an astronaut (or are one), would you be willing to risk it all to go to Mars?
The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean
The first episode of the space series Cosmos, narrated by the Carl Sagan. Absolutely fascinating and a must-watch.
Thanks to the Hubble telescope for the awe-inspiring photo of Mars.
Have you read Zubrin’s “The Case for Mars”? It’s a bit out of date now, since the Orion program didn’t exist at the time, but he was arguing strongly for a Saturn V type booster that would send a capsule directly from the launchpad to Martian transit, with no assembly time in Earth orbit (and certainly no detours to the moon).
Haven’t read the book, but have heard a lot about it and read a lot of articles revolving around the info he wrote about in the book. It’s on my list though. The big thing Zubrin seems to argue for is not having a moon landing type trip, but with the first trip putting in building blocks for future trips and a more permanent establishment. I’m all for it.
With the length of the trip (2-3 years total depending on where Earth and Mars are at), the trip needs to be direct, assembly time wastes time and resources that should be spent on moving forward.
In either case, I don’t think the major limitation is technology, but rather politics/economics. If we ingrain that space exploration is a critical aspect of our budget, and fund it as such, we could be on Mars within the next ten years. From my perspective, if we’re spending so much on banks and wars, let’s spend even more on Mars.
Unsure if you know the facts, but a human trip to Mars is within NASA’s future framework. See http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/mars/
Thanks Ari, did know about that but from my understanding the program isn’t being funded enough to make it viable. It’s a start, but without giving NASA a much bigger Mars budget, it won’t lead us anywhere soon.
I read the cosmos as teenager, and thought it was great!… I too wonder what mars has to offer. I just want them to find bacteria so that people can prove that life exists outside of earth. As soon as that happens, I’ll be happy.
Agreed, love the way Sagan approached it as science but with a creative “let’s imagine” method. He really knew how to get the wheels spinning in our minds about these grand ideas.
Finding bacteria would be great, one thing I’m curious about is if we can ever verify that bacteria didn’t come from one of our devices we’ve sent to Mars. I know they’re sterilized, but can we be 100%?
Well I was refereing to either A fossilized bacteria in the rocks, or B. Bacteria that’s only discoverred in rock cores. If those are the cases, then I think you can be pretty sure it didn’t come from us. That and the likely hood that the bacteria would have the same DNA as some bacteria here on earth is really small. I think if it did have the same dna it wouldnt be the same kind of win.
what bothers me is that we can people in space and explore mars and the outer reaches of our galaxy but we can’t cure cancer or leukemia? If we put the brains of this country into really something worth fight for we could help more people
Well, Michele, I think you’re downplaying how tough it is to cure cancer. Getting a crew to Mars is relatively simple, get enough fuel, plot the course, and go. The logistics of it are extremely tough, and space is an un-forgiving place where small mistakes could be compounded, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s point, shoot, go.
Cancer on the other hand, and let me note I’m not a doctor, uses the body’s immune system against you. That’s a very, very difficult thing to combat. With space, we know how to, with cancer, we don’t even know how to combat it yet.
I wouldn’t mind risking going to Mars if the government would make me rich and cut out my takes for it hehe 🙂
I think they were sceduling a trip to mars sometime in 2028, I read it in national geographic
Yes!!! WE go to Mars only after 2000 years !
I love this kind of posts. Keep up the good work!
Well mars is not my first choice. The gravity there is just too light to be able to believe that Earth evolved animals will not have major problems without some sort of centrifuge gravity assist. Plus there is just enough atmosphere to blow around dust but never be breathable. I would go to an big asteroid (Ceres) with a smaller gravity well.
Yes we must visit and put a man on mars, I love looking at the stars and night wondering where is the end to space,or is there others out there looking back at us.
Always a mystery & a everyone is very curious to know about mars & what mars is all about.
I want to go there if life is possible there & a gaurantee of coming back to my town.
Regards !
Smith
Yes, mankind must venture out into space if he is to survive.
Well if you felt goosebumps go up & down your arms when you thought about it then..well when I thought about it..after I read your part of the post where you talked about the posibility of a global attempt..and everyone working together…well suffice to say I felt those goosebumps myself…would be nice to see something connecting the world instead of separating it..and such a grand goal the 1st man on Mars could just be it…and we do have the money…just look at how much the army of each country costs…take that money from each country and sum it up..and I am sure you would get more than enough money for not only that but for all future space projects…