Are Humans Prepared to Live on Mars?
Thesis: There are many problems that we, as humans, need to solve before journeying to Mars.
I. The Mars mission would be difficult to accomplish because humans would have to spend billions of dollars on the venture.
A. “Estimates place the cost of a crewed Moon mission at $100 billion. A crewed Mars mission could cost five times that much” (Doeden 40).
B. The U.S. is already trillions of dollars in debt, and a mission to a possibly uninhabitable planet could just add to that toll.
C. Doeden describes, on page 40, the alternatives to the money that would be spent on the Mars endeavor.
D. The U.S. could spend the money on research of the Mars mission to prove that it is a plausible planet to inhabit.
E. There
The attempt to put the first man on the moon was a waste of government resources because of the extensive amounts of money used by putting the country into even more debt. After the United States got out of WWI and WWII, we were in debt around 257 trillion dollars ("The Space Race and the Cold War."). As the United States got more and more into the Cold War, the debt went up. The Apollo program alone, costed more than twenty- ...
I’ll use the LexisNexis and EBSCOhost databases, available through the Ivy Tech library. I will also use the reference librarians at the Tippecanoe Public, as they are an invaluable research tool. I will use reports from NASA, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), and other governmental resources. I will send questions to aerospace firms and elected officials, asking about their thoughts and what their goals are. I will read books, articles, and proposals written by experts on the topic. One such book is Mission to Mars by Buzz Aldrin, an Apollo astronaut. Through this research I will find the facts, and then I will make arguments based on those
Going to the moon and Mars is excellent, but that’s already been done. Time for something else to happen. If NASA’s budget was increased, it could be pushed to find other habitable planets and new resources to help out here on Earth. With more funding, NASA can build a manned base on the moon while finding a way to Mars.
Using that money would help preserve the planet than using money on the military which is used to fight wars which destroy the
It’s readily apparent that, if given more financial support, NASA would ultimately stimulate the desperately needed economic growth in the nation. Furthermore, from all the research I’ve done I can come to the honest conclusion that NASA’s finances, along with being increased, should be doubled. That would be 0.96% of every penny of every dollar (not even a whole penny). This totals out to approximately $35 billion dollars. Again, history shows that “the nations who embrace the investments in science and technology are those that lead the world”. However, if $35 billion dollars still sounds too costly for you then I have but one final question. How much would you pay for the universe?
As a country we need to start investing more money and research into space technology. Programs currently exist for this effort, but the potential for research and progress is limited by a lack of funding; compared to other government funded programs, aerospace funding is pitiful. Continued research in space technology is a necessary step in our growth and development not just as a country but also as entire human race. If we are to achieve this goal, it is necessary to increase funding for space research and technology and consider the possibility of colonizing outer space. If we limit our existence to the planet Earth, and continue to drain the resources on this planet, we will destroy the only home we have.
Kaku, Michio. "The Cost Of Space Exploration." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 16 July 2009. Web. 8
Money is a big deal to most people in this world. Putting money in the right place is something our nation has been struggling with in the past few years. In 2006, “...almost $17 billion will fly into NASA's coffers with about $5.3 billion dedicated to space exploration” (Source E). Giving 17 billion dollars to a company is a large sum of money. Only 31 percent of that sum will be put into space exploration. Space exploration is important, but giving NASA 17 billion dollars is far too high. There are other important things some of that money could be put towards, like our national debt...
Space exploration needs advancing scientific research, more machineries and equipments which means that it would cost us a lot of
With all the problems we have on earth and how much we don’t know about our own planet we shouldn’t be colonizing others. We may have the science but we don’t have the funds. We also have tons of willing people but not enough physically and mentally able to colonize a planet. Children are starving all around the world, People are homeless, and wars are starting. Humankind needs to achieve some sort of world peace before trying to explore space. Also, humans will end up destroying life if we try to colonize an
When people think of troubles that are related to space, they tend to overlook one of the most obvious and most important problems, financing. Money may prevent humans from leaving the very earth we stand on in the first place. Money can easily be the solution to a problem or the cause of one. In the supporting film, Stationed in the Stars, it was mentioned that in 1992, NASA spent 8 billion dollars without building a single piece of material. The money was spent on other things such as payroll and international conferences. The film also brought up the fact that every pound of water needed would cost up to 10 thousand dollars; therefore, 100 lbs. of water would cost 1 million dollars. This problem was later solved with the help of Russia in the creation of the closed loop system. But Russia has not always been so helpful. While Russia was working with NASA to help build a service module, they purposely delayed their efforts in order to receive more money from NASA, until NASA had enough and gave them a deadline to comply with. There are times when financing may prevent a project from being ventured into completely without even spending the money. For example, further servicing of the International Space Station would have cost upwards of 100 billion dollars. That is why that project is still uncompleted.
The recent events regarding the NASA Mars probes have renewed the debate of reinstalling manned space missions with the objectives of exploring and landing on foreign worlds such as the moon and the red planet Mars, rather than the use of solely robotic craft and machines. It is my belief that we should return to the days of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, those of manned lunar landings and manned space exploration. Robots simply cannot and should not be allowed to be the sole means of visiting these worlds, nor should humans only be able to witness new findings second hand through the use of computers and machines. It is human nature to be normally curious of one’s surroundings, and it is important that we send one of our own to new worlds. The effects that past missions have had on the world’s people, as well as our political and cultural climates are another valid reason for flesh instead of metal to lay claim to space. Also, the limitless applications and new education that manned flights can bring to us from on site human interactions could lead to another technological and industrial revolution like the original lunar programs had done for us during the Gemini and Apollo programs.
...usion, the major challenges that humans could face on an expedition to Mars and back; are radiation exposure, biological problems induced by weightlessness, spacecraft
Not only that, but our population has been growing at an extremely alarming rate. At our current rate, our species may not be able to survive for much longer. This is where space exploration comes in. With the recent discovery of water on Mars, and the finding of Kepler-78b, it is possible that mankind can prolong our existence. The possibility of interstellar travel seems to be an option, or even a necessity, if we wish to continue living.
Most people think that the costly downside to funding space exploration is a reason to avoid spending money on sciences and instead spend it on problems here on earth, but such funding for space exploration actually promotes economical as well as scientific benefits. Space exploration is an important expenditure for the high cost because of the potential for numerous benefits such as the possibility to find useful resources to cultivate, space exploration and satellites produce many thousands of jobs in our economy, and it creates and discovers newer and better technologies through research and development.