Final Project

Rachel C.

Legislator:  John H. Shields, Representative

(Click on the image above to enlarge.)

To Mars and Beyond

From the beginning of time humans have always expanded and adapted to live in new areas for many different reasons. At least in the past 50 years, if not in the times of the greeks, people have wondered what it would be like to live on the moon or on another planet. Now we finally have the capacity to make that step, but will we? Should we? Who should go? What should we do on mars? Where should we go on mars? When should we go? How do we finance it? What countries should participate? And how do we get there and back? How long should we be there? I have researched the general idea of going to mars and the realities of it. Let me start by giving you the options on what we can do, and then let me tell you what I think we should do.

First off, will we go? This is a hot issue right now, in due time, humans will visit mars, however, would a moon base be more logical before we try to go to mars? It probably would be, but we are humans and we are constantly trying to reach the unreachable. Mars would inspire many dreams, hopes and wishes. So, there’s no way of knowing the future. The next question is, should we go? The answer to this is mostly yes. However there are some drawbacks like cost, dangers, exposure to foreign objects, possibility of Mars or Earth contamination, and the possibility of failure. Next is, who should go? This is something that is rather flexible, we could send married couples capable of fulfilling all of the assignments. We could send people from different countries, but that might cause cultural and language problems. The important thing is, whoever is sent, needs to know how to handle emergencies, how to fix the vehicle that takes them there, and how to fulfill their missions. The Next question is what should we do on mars.  There are many things to be done if we were to go to Mars. We would want someone to seek out life and the capacity of Mars to hold life. Then we would want somebody to study the features of Mars. We would want to study the chemical composition of the planet and conduct experiments on adaptation to foreign gravity. We would want to study the different physics of Mars and the biological adaptations going from space to lesser gravity. There are many questions asked by many people about Mars, our goal would be to answer as many as we can working from the biggest questions down to the smaller ones. The next question is where we should go on mars. Depending on how much time we spend on mars, and depending what our capacity to maneuver is, we should explore as much as we can without interfering with stationed experiments or other things of importance. We would definitely want to visit the poles, the volcanoes, the canyons, the canals, and the mountains. The next question is when should we go. We should go as soon as we feel it is some what safe and some what easier to transport a crew to Mars and back.  During 2014-2019, the alignment of the planets would be good for a mission to mars because it would be possible to back out of going to mars by sling shoting our crew off of another planet’s gravitational field. But would we be ready by then to make the trip? Some people think it would be better to delay the project until we have more technology, and understanding of space.  Then, how do we finance a trip to mars? The biggest thing we need to understand is that the public have to have an interest in the trip to mars.  We have to catch a consumer’s attention and have them invest their money. My suggestion is this. Make it a television show. Have it be like survivor 3 except you don’t vote anyone off. Have it air once every week or every other week and get different companies such as McDonalds, Cheerios, Snickers, Nike, Energizer Batterie, and such to buy rights to put Mission to Mars related things on their packages. You could have companies buy advertisements during your show. We could rely on grants and donations, plus we could request a higher budget for NASA. Whatever we do, the public has to be interested in it, and dedicated to it. The next question is, which countries should participate. If this was still the cold war, the U.S. would do it alone, however it would be rather conceded for one country to go to Mars alone, so we should try to get many countries to invest in it like we did with the space station. The more, the merrier. The next question is, how do we get there. There are 3 basic methods in consideration. The first is a long flight and a short stay on mars, the second is a short flight and a long stay on mars and the last is a 2 step process, first, send the equipment and make sure it lands safely and all equipment works, Then send your crew. The problem with a long flight is that every day an astronaut is in space they loose muscle and bone mass. They are slowly being weakened by not having gravity. Then, what if they don’t have enough time on the planet to finish all of their work. That would be a hard thing to be faced with.  The second option of a short trip and a long stay also has it’s drawbacks, like how much fuel it will take to travel mars. Also, how are they going to supply themselves with the things they need and what if one of the in-situ machines broke on landing so they couldn’t get fuel or oxygen or water from the martian planet. Then there is the third option of sending the equipment first and then sending the people. The drawback here is also the fuel and resources of sending two different shuttles is considerably greater than just sending one. However you could ensure that the machinery worked before you committed a crew to go, when they wouldn’t know what to expect entirely.  The problem with all of these, is how are they going to supply themselves with all the necessities we need? The most logical thing to do is to use things that are already in or on mars (in-situ) to lessen the cost of sending more fuel, oxygen or water other such thing that you would have to send if you didn’t. The next question is, how long should we be there. The choices are effected by the position of the planets which are only within a reasonable distance to travel, once every 2 years. So a mission would be around that long, if not longer. Most of our conclusions rely on common sense however there are more than one opinion on what is most logical.

My personal opinion is just as debatable as anyone else’s. I believe that we should send happily married couples that are fully qualified to go, this way they will get less lonely and homesick. Not only that but they would probably work together better because they would have background with their spouse and they would understand how the other one works. We should go as soon as we can and we should try to get there fast and stay as long as we can. The more experiments we do on mars, the more we learn, the more we learn, the better. We should explore as much as we can too. As far as financing is concerned, it will be very hard to do it without the public’s support so we should try to get as much mars merchandise as we can out into the economy to earn money for the trip and to encourage public support of the program. As far as what countries should participate, I think that all should be welcome, as long as they donate a minimum amount of money and fully support the program. We should start with our friends that helped us make the space station. Then between all of us and a lot of consulting one another, we can see if other countries would like to join and then we should consider how much they should pay and how much support they should give. The last question, is how should we get there, the most logical thing to do in my mind is to send the equipment to mars before we send people. We need to make sure that the equipment is good and works well before we risk the lives of the crew on this mission. Not only that but while the equipment is there, it can begin extracting things like oxygen and fuel for when the astronauts arrive and need to depart. Then after you know that all the equipment works and is in good condition, then we should send a crew. We should use the fastest, safest way possible in getting our crew to and back from Mars.

In conclusion, I believe that one day man will step on Mars, maybe they will repeat the famous words that the walking on mars would be "One small step for man, one giant leap for man kind." There are many ways for us to achieve that, hopefully we will make the wisest of choices and make it there and back safely. No doubt our crew’s safety will be a huge concern, I just hope that nothing goes wrong like it has before for example Apollo 13 and the Challenger. May we all do our part to make dreams come true.

Sources:

http://www.thinkmars.net/humanstomars/index.html

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/mars/mars_crew.html

http://www.spaceref.com/redirect.html?id=0&url=www.solarviews.com/eng/marswhy.htm

Last Updated: 07/10/01