Throughout the past, technology has allowed for, and encouraged, forward-thinking in the ideas of humans. Technology has led humans toward ideas, and thus, inventions whose intentions were the composition of an easier and more efficient life. One of these ideas that has plagued humans is a desire for a relocation to Mars. This idea is becoming increasingly possible with the technology created each day by the students studying to achieve this mission. With the possibility of expanding innovative ideas into new inventions, many hurdles will inevitably have to be overcome. Within the desire to accomplish the prolonged journey to Mars, aerospace engineers face many problems such as ways to encounter funding for the expensive venture, protecting …show more content…
Doeden stated, “Estimates place the cost of a crewed Moon mission at $100 billion. A crewed Mars mission could cost five times that much” (Doeden 40). The U.S. is already trillions of dollars in debt, and a mission to a possibly uninhabitable planet would just add to that toll. Doeden describes the alternatives to the money spent on the Mars endeavor on page 40. Many potential investors could find fault with funding such a venture, considering they could argue that our country has other existing problems that could use the funding of a half-trillion dollars more so than on a single mission to Mars. Arguable examples might include: improving education, or paying off the national debt, as Doeden mentions on page 41. Other examples could be that the U.S. could spend the money on research for the Mars mission to prove that it is a plausible planet to inhabit, or the money could go to sending supplies and resources to third-world countries hit by a natural disaster or countries that do not have enough resources. However, money is only one of the major problems that come with interplanetary …show more content…
did manage to muster enough money to travel to Mars, the worry about the unknown amount radiation in space begins a whole new list of problems. One article stated, “Most estimates strongly imply that returning astronauts will have exceeded their lifetime radiation dosages, with consequent increases in cancer rates” (“Mars Travel and Radiation”). Radiation sources reside between the planets in the form of solar flares. Another example of radiation in space presents itself in the form of cosmic rays that exist on the surface of Mars. These atom fragments enter Mars’s thin atmosphere and create an environment that would be unsafe to live in without the proper protection. The potential space travelers exposed to the radiation would be unprotected for such an extended period that they would need special modifications on their spacesuits to walk out of the space station on the surface of Mars. Earth’s atmosphere is thicker than that of Mars, so it protects the inhabitants from harmful materials like cosmic rays. The future Mars explorers would be exposing themselves to numerous forms of radiation for over 1000 days. Within the 360 days the travelers would be in space, in addition to the 780 days on the surface of Mars, the radiation exposure alone would be enough to kill a
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), was booming in the late 1960 's because the U.S. invested over 4.5 percent of the Federal Budget (Bolden). Unfortunately, in the recent years the Government has slashed funding for many of NASA’s projects in an attempt to cut back on the deficit and boost the economy. Despite the plummet in NASA 's budget, the program has proved that it 's prominence in the U.S., space programs like NASA continue to face difficulty in increasing its funds. Although, NASA leads Evidently, the government doesn 't think NASA is worth more than 0.47 percent of the federal budget. NASA is being underfunded and its funding should be substantially increased to make ends meet. This trend needs
Again, I’ll agree that the budget is a large amount, but Michael Griffin, former NASA administrator said it best during a presentation to aerospace leaders in 2009; “What we do is huge, and we do it for chump change – less than the annual market for pizza,” the pizza market at the time being $27 billion (Spires). Space exploration benefits everyone. I’ll leave you with this to consider the next time you’re waiting for your GPS app to load on your phone, (brought to you by NASA technology). The moon is an abundant source of Helium-3. Helium-3 produces a clean nuclear reaction – no toxic waste. Why would you want to reduce funding to an organization researching this?
But actually, for the astronaut’s entire trip to the depths of space from Moon and back, the astronauts really only obtained a dose equal to about one-tenth of one per cent of the radiation needed for a dose that could kill a human being. The explanation is that the harmful effects from radiation are equivalent to the strength of the radiation and the time that it is exposed. A human would need to spend almost four months touching the Van Allen belts to receive a dose to kill somebody. The astronauts passed through them in only one single hour. As for their time spent beyond the Earth's magnetic field, where the astronauts could be exposed to cosmic radiation, an astronaut could make a one-way trip to Mars and not receive a dose that exceeds NASA's lifetime limits and that also do not come close to a lethal
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.
There are ways to better understand how radiation affects the body when compared to other every day activities. If an occupational worker receives 1 rem per year then is it possible that 51 days is expected to be lost. A person that smokes 20 cigarettes a day takes about 6 years off of their life. People that are overweight by 15% take about 2 years off of their life. In actuality radiation would seem as though it is not any more harmful than other everyday activities people decide to do such as smoke, chew tobacco, or sky dive. The risk of taking days, weeks, years off of ones lives will always be present depending on the activity they choose to be part of. However, radiation exposure in the healthcare field is used to extend the patient’s life by helping them find out what is going on in their body. A patient that comes in with RLQ pain, nausea, and vomiting then an abdomen x-r...
Using NASA's, Space Radiation Cancer Risk Projections and Uncertainties, a model of risk and uncertainties; NASA predicted that central estimates for radiation-induced mortality and morbidity could exceed 5% and 10% with upper 95% confidence interval near 10% and 20%, respectively for a Mars mission. NASA's radiation standard limits astronaut exposures to a 3% risk of exposure induced death at the upper 95% confidence interval of the risk estimate (Cucinotta et al. 42-67). Although the radiation levels on Mars are less than expected, it’s possible Mark would have considerably increased
With all the money required to travel to and live on another planet is we could end half of world hunger. Elon Musk even says "You can't create a self-sustaining city on Mars for $10 billion a person,"( http://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-spacex-mars-colony-talk-iac-2016-9). This means that we would need more than 10 billion per person to live on mars. The amount of cash required is so tremendous that it would be nearly impossible to live on mars and not lose everything. Now, this is a reasonable complaint, if we don’t have the money we can’t do
Starting with Mars being too dangerous. Colonists could be exposed to radiation which can result in cancer, brain damage, tumors, sickness, or death. Secondly, Mars has a lower gravity than Earth which means over time colonists would lose bone mass, have a weaker immune system, and have a weaker heart and body. Lastly, colonists would be in a closed environment for a long periods of time which could lead to mental problems according to NASA and Mars One.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket roars into space on a CRS-12 mission, with our experiment on board, destined for NASA's International Space Station on August 14, 2017. My heart pounded harder than the ground shook below me as the rocket fire tail pierced through the blue sky above me. The experiment is designed to examine the efficacy of different radiation-shielding materials on E. coli bacteria, and I aspire to use the results from this study make astronautics safer in a cost-effective way for future space expeditions. Prolonged exposure to ionizing radiation puts astronauts in hazardous carcinogenic conditions. Watching the needle weave in and out of the cotton clouds my memory faded and my world flashed back before my eyes.
The benefits derived from NASA’s work over the last five decades have been tremendous. Future generations will continue to benefit from the many discoveries led by NASA and their space research. The risks of reducing funding for NASA and halting its existence are great, as it is unknown what the next discovery will be and its impact on the USA and the world. The true potential of space research can only be realized by continuing to fund NASA.
The energy in ionizing radiation can cause chemical changes in the the cells that can lead to damaging them. Most of the cells can either permanently or temporarily become abnormal or they can just die. Radiation can cause cancer by damaging the DNA in the body. The damage of the cells can also depend on how long the organs are exposed (environmental protection agency, 2017, unknown). If someone has many exposures at one time that radiation in the body keeps adding on. As well as if its only a little bit of exposure in on day and years later you get exposed again it keeps adding on the radiation will never leave the body. Having radiation in your body doesn’t affect you right away but as you get older it starts to show and you feel it. Chronic exposure is when someone is exposed many time for long periods. When this happens the type of effects it will carry is having harmful generic change, cancer, tumors, and even cataracts. Partial health effects can also depend on if it was internal or external exposure. Internal exposure is when either by drinking, breathing, eating and even an injection cause radiation to get inside your body. External exposure is when taking an x-ray out of your body and letting it go through letting all the energy go as it goes in (environmental protection agency, 2017, unknown). In the dental world radiation gets into the patients when we take x-rays on there teeth. In order to avoid to much radiation on them we put a lead apron on them and make sure to cover their thyroid which is the most common way of getting cancer when taking an x-ray. When we take the x-ray we stand behind a wall at least 6 feet away to avoid ourself from getting
In America, space travel is a controversial issue that many discuss. Although exciting, some people find it unnecessary and a waste of money. There are also many risks associated with space travel and many issues are more important than space travel that should be focused on. There are ethical, diplomatic, and economic issues that need to be considered before making decisions about space exploration.
Humans can expect to face some major challenges on an expedition to Mars. It has been proven that humanity can travel in space for over two years. Cumulatively, Sergei Constantinovich Krikalev, a Russian cosmonaut, has spent over eight-hundred and three days in Earth orbit (Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, 2005). The expedition to Mars would require the crew to endure a six month journey to the planet, a year of living on the planet, and a six months journey back to Earth. Russian cosmonaut, Valery V. Polyakoz, clocking in at four-hundred and thirty-eight days for just one stay in Earth orbit, shows humanity is capable of a twelve month round trip to Mars (Schwirtz, 2009).
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.
NASA’s planned missions to Mars, should it come to fruition, will be the furthest distance any human being has ever traversed. While this is an impressive feat in and of itself, it becomes even more so when one takes into acco...