Sunday, April 1, 2012

Initial Thoughts on the US’s Decision to Make a Manned Flight to Mars


As some of you may have heard, the United States has announced that they will actually be attempting a manned flight to Mars.

My thought on this is twofold: I would definitely like to see us be able to start colonizing outer space in my lifetime. For all the cynical remarks about how we wreck the planet, we are also capable of doing a lot of amazing, positive things and I think it would be great if we could somehow continue as a species after the Earth is no more.  It would also be great if we could relieve a bit of the pressure on the Earth that way.

Also, people who are cynical about human existence often have soft spot for other animals, particular dogs and cats.  If humans die off because we use up all the resources, most if not all the other lifeforms do as well. 

Plus even more colonizing, which would be a later step, we might learn a great deal about our own planet from whatever samples would be obtained from Mars.  And of course, for a few hours we could honestly say for sure that there is life on Mars!

My main concern though is that there have been a number of manned space flights that have ended in disaster.  What I’d like to see instead is some reinforces made, then another attempt to the moon, and then, if that goes well attempt the extra resources (more food, greater psychological profiling etc) that would be needed for the longer trip to Mars.  More costly in the short term, reater benefit in the long term.

And hey, doesn’t the thought of kitties eventually making it into outer space and being able to satisfy their curiosity about other planets sound appealiong?

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