Don't Send People To Mars
Just my personal thoughts. We should not send people to Mars let alone on any more extended space mission.
Updated 10/29/03
Chloe (Sullivan) to Clark Kent in one of the Smallville TV episodes: "Most men are from Mars, but you are from some distant galaxy I never heard of."
There are a number of groups who are pushing for more space exploration including putting men on Mars.
I think we should not send people to Mars. We should instead concentrate our resources on improving life here on earth.
Unlike foreign explorers landing in America centuries ago, we do not need to colonize space. We do not have a population overcrowding problem such as existed in England in the 1600's.
And back then people were not concerned with safety, all they wanted to do was flee Merrie Olde England or wherever. Ships were lost at sea and those voyages were never documented. On the other side of the Americas, people from Polynesian islands cast off their canoes and catamarans for better shores, many did not make it to land and we only have historical records about those who survived.
Today we don't believe in making multiple manned voyages, just hoping that one will succeed. Instead we will spend ever so much more money to install every safety feature imaginable. Still, given the 6 month one way travel time, it will be impossible to respond to many kinds of emergencies. Should people be lost in space, the whole nation will go into mourning.
There are various experiments here on Earth, such as desert and Arctic living environments, to plan for living on Mars. If we forget about Mars, these experiments have valuable uses here on Earth so the effort is not wasted.
One thing I would never want to see is a self contained living unit blasting off into space and destined for a distant galaxy, the trip time to cover several generations. This is an ultimate example of loss of freedom, those born on the space ship will have no choice of activity or occupation except to sustain life for another generation until the ship should land somewhere.
By the way, as of now we have not solved the problem of transporting enough fuel on a mission to enable the ship to depart Mars, escape its gravitational pull, and return to earth.
All parts (c) copyright 2003, Allan W. Jayne, Jr. unless otherwise noted or other origin stated.
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