Their program: Mars colonisation.Organised by Elon Musks SpaceX and attended by members of Nasas Mars expedition programme, the goal of this inaugural “Mars workshop” was to begin creating concrete strategies for landing, building and sustaining a human nest on Mars within the next 40 to 100 years.This workshop signals the growing momentum and truth behind strategies to in fact send out human beings to Mars. Sending out human beings to Mars was ranked eighth (ahead only of returning to the Moon) with only 18% of those surveyed thinking it ought to be a high priority.We have actually understood for some time that the journey to Mars for people would be hard. The billions– if not trillions– of dollars needed to colonise Mars could, for example, be better invested investing in sustainable types of energy to address climate change or strengthening our planetary defences versus asteroid collisions.And of course, if we have actually not figured out how to deal with problems of our own making here on Earth, there is no assurance that the very same fate would not befall Mars colonists.Furthermore, if something genuinely terrible were to happen on Earth, its not clear Mars would actually be a reliable redemption.
Their program: Mars colonisation.Organised by Elon Musks SpaceX and attended by members of Nasas Mars exploration programme, the goal of this inaugural “Mars workshop” was to start developing concrete strategies for landing, building and sustaining a human colony on Mars within the next 40 to 100 years.This workshop indicates the growing momentum and reality behind plans to actually send out humans to Mars. Sending out human beings to Mars was ranked 8th (ahead just of returning to the Moon) with only 18% of those surveyed believing it must be a high priority.We have known for some time that the journey to Mars for people would be difficult. Like so many advocates of Mars exploration, Ive constantly thought the sacrifice was worth it.But– to check this belief– I desired to look at the case versus Mars; 3 reasons humans should leave the red world alone.Humans will pollute MarsIt is tough to forget the images 6 months ago of Elon Musks midnight cherry Tesla floating through space. The billions– if not trillions– of dollars needed to colonise Mars could, for example, be much better invested investing in eco-friendly types of energy to deal with environment change or enhancing our planetary defences against asteroid collisions.And of course, if we have not figured out how to deal with problems of our own making here on Earth, there is no assurance that the same fate would not befall Mars colonists.Furthermore, if something truly horrible were to happen on Earth, its not clear Mars would in fact be a reliable redemption. Lets not forget that Mars has next to no environment, just one 3rd gravity and is exposed to surface radiation roughly 100 times higher than on Earth.So, whats the verdict?The arguments above program that we are maybe not prepared to go to Mars– at least, not today.We need to first upgrade our policies on planetary defense and use them fairly to both public and private sector entities.
