Earth First: Addressing Challenges and Priorities Before Venturing to Mars

Humanity has lived on Earth for thousands of years. however there comes a point when humans must ask themselves, should we expand to other parts of the known universe in the coming decades? Recent problems such as climate change and global warming are a real threat to Based information from NASA and on plausible emission scenarios, average surface temperatures could rise between 2°C and 6°C by the end of the 21st century (Global warming). Warming of the Earth will continue even if emissions are reduced immediately.

This is because the Earth system has not yet fully adjusted to the environmental changes we have already made. As well as thinking of solutions to these problems, perhaps we start looking to the stars to expand to ensure the survival of mankind isn’t restricted to just Earth.

Perhaps creating outposts on places like the moon and asteroids and other entities. One place however that has garnered much debate in recent years is whether or not humans should take the next big step forward and colonize the planet of Mars.

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Others may say we look elsewhere, like the nearby Moon. Now, while very close, is small, barren and devoid of atmosphere. Life on the Moonbase would be like the one in a lifeless desert, there would be no water nearby at all and to add to that there is no atmosphere on the moon(Levchenko). Other neighboring planets, such as hot Venus and gas giants Jupiter and Saturn, are not suitable for human habitation.

It sounds like we should colonize Mars immediately, or should we? While there are many reasons why we should colonize Mars, there is also much debate behind why we should not. I for one believe that there many issues here on Earth that must be addressed. For example, many believe that we should explore the ocean’s that are basically in our backyard, and we know very little about them as little as 5% of them have been explored (NOAA). Also, another issue with colonizing another planet, as well as anything to do with space is the cost of it. Such as the cost of the Curiosity Rover on Mars was 2.5 billion in 2012 (Folger). Not to mention the ever-rising cost of current space operations like the International Space Station.

There are also many risks involved in going to Mars, such as how it affects the human body and the amount of time needed to get to Mars. These combined risks as well as costs make going to Mars not worth it at this time and we should focus on the issues here on Earth. First off, when looking at this argument of going to Mars or not, there is a big reason we need to consider which is the sheer amount of resources that are available on the planet of Mars. Mars is expected to have the substantial mineral resource at and under its surface layer, with a recently confirmed evidence of metal ores and other vital mineral substances(Levchenko).

Compounds such as nitrogen, oxygen and even water have been observed to be available on Mars. There have been ways that have demonstrated a practical way of extracting and refining all of these resources into useful products. All of these resources can be used in ways that can make life sustainable for life on Mars, which would cut down on the time and cost of sending resources after getting this machinery set up. Water would be the first of these compounds extracted using in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) equipment to regions of Mars with subsurface water ice deposits( Moses & Bushnell). Another common compound was Silicon Dioxide which is the basic component of glass, which can readily be produced on Mars using sand-melting techniques similar to those that have been used on Earth for thousands of years.

This can be used to create many important glass products, including fiberglass, an excellent material for constructing various types of structures(Moses and Bushnell). The soil has also been found to be used as radiation shielding and could provide many useful industrial and construction materials. This radiation shield created by this soil will be used to create underground structures where humans can live and are created by filling the caverns with inflatable habitat modules. Digging out habitats would also be an efficient way to expose subsurface water ice and other resources needed for ISRU(Moses and Bushnell). Compounds with high chemical energy, such as rocket fuels, can be manufactured in-situ on Mars(Meyer & Mckay).

Solar power, and possibly wind power, are available and practical on Mars(Dunbar). NASA scientist David Bubenheim has talked about how this would work. He says “solar and wind complement each other on Mars”, such as when a dust storm on Mars blocks out the sun, Wind power would still be able to provide electricity(Dunbar). Another reason Mars colonization is beneficial is that is pushing humans to the limits. Neil Degrasse Tyson once said “ People often ask, If you like spin‐off products, why not just invest in those technologies straight away, instead of waiting for them to happen as spin‐offs? The answer: it just doesn't work that way”.

The meaning of this quote is that Space exploration has always pushed humans to their limits and allowed for new technologies to be created because of it. Colonizing Mars would allow this to continue and allow human technology to become better. The list of technological benefits encompass improved solar panels, implantable heart monitors, light‐based anti‐cancer therapy, cordless tools, light‐weight high‐temperature alloys used in jet engine turbines, cameras found in today's cell phones, compact water-purification systems, global search‐and‐rescue systems and biomedical technologies (Benefits). The list goes on and on about what technologies have been made from space and space travel.

Colonizing and expanding Mars would ultimately cause that list to expand even more. Research is continuously about the environment of the ISS. Many areas such as materials science, human physiology, physics, plant biology and more continue to find ways to benefit society. (Benefits). The soil on Mars has been found to possibly be able to plant crops. This kind of research can be used to help out planting and agriculture as a whole on society and if we can figure out how to plant crops among other things, on Mars, then perhaps we can figure out how doing it on areas of Earth that is hard to grow food in.

Colonizing Mars would also have good effects on international relations between countries. Space has always been a unifier of sorts among countries like America, Russia, and China, countries that normally wouldn’t see eye to eye on things. For example, a treaty has been in effect since 1967 that details how outer space exploration will take place. Such as the exploration and use of outer space shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries and shall be the province of all mankind(Wickramatunga).

Outer space shall be free for exploration and use by all States; outer space is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, through use or occupation, or by any other means (Wickramatunga). Perhaps creating this colony on Mars are many smaller colonies throughout the planet that can result in cooperation. Cooperation in outer space potentially has results to affect how we cooperate here on Earth. Perhaps resources can be divided up from Mars equally between whichever country makes it to the moon.

While indeed there can be many benefits from going to Mars, there are more cons than pros. The biggest issue is the cost. Going to Mars isn’t going to be cheap, as space travel and exploration never is. A mission of this scale can be compared to that of the building of the International space station(ISS) which ended up costing around $150 billion with $100 billion coming from NASA(Mosher). It also costs NASA around $3-4 billion a year to maintain. Sending the necessary resources to set up a colony on Mars is estimated to cost around $100 billion alone before the first humans ever even leave for Mars(Smith,Glenn,Spudis). Sending actual humans to Mars would likely end up costing A ballpark cost of the first Mars mission in 2035 would total $230 billion.

Second missions and missions that would follow, that would occur every 3 years,would cost about $142 billion each including SLS and Orion costs On top of this high set up cost it is estimated to maintain a colony the cost could amount to something equal of the U.S military budget of $1.69 trillion per year(Gilkens). In comparison to sending a man to the moon, it ended up costing around $1.5 trillion for all of the Apollo missions combined(Smith, Glenn,Spudis). Is it worth the cost? Especially considering that the first human missions to Mars won’t begin until at the earliest in 2035. Now it is possible to make money off all the resources on Mars, but we don’t know what the cost of extracting those will be and not to mention that it would take years to get them back to Earth.

Next, going to Mars isn’t a good idea because of the time needed to do so. It’s estimated that the quicker a shuttle would take to get to Mars would be around 130 days and upwards to about a year(Bharmal). As stated earlier the earliest possible manned mission is set up for around 2035 and with travel time included, humans would end up on Mars potentially in 2036(Bharmal). We must ask ourselves if it is worth investing in something that is so far away when there are issues here and now that we must address such as investing in solving climate change and global warming. It is estimated that the global temperature will rise by 0.2 Celsius per year for the coming decades and it is estimated that sea levels will rise as well based on data from the 20th century that said ocean levels rose about 20 to 40 cm or about 4-8 inches(Predictions). We need to start taking action today to prevent this from happening further.

On Mars, the temperature changes are drastic. Due to the atmosphere being around 100 times thinner than that of Earth, Mars experience very different temperatures than what we are used to on Earth (Sharp). If humans live on Mars, we would need new technologies to adapt to these changes. Also we wouldn’t know how reliable these technologies would be and could potentially have devastating effects on those who would live on Mars.

Another reason to be against Mars colonization, while we cannot feasibly colonize the oceans, but we should at least explore them.Why should we go exploring another planet when we haven’t fully explored this one? Exploring the oceans is important to all of us on Earth. Ocean exploration is defined by NOAA as Ocean exploration is about making discoveries, searching for things that are unusual and unexpected. It is, however, is not randomly wandering in hopes of finding something new(US Commerce). It is disciplined and organized and includes rigorous observations and documents aspects of the ocean that are chemical, biological and geological to name a few. Ocean exploration is also important because there is so much unknown about the ocean especially in the deep ocean.

If we want to colonize Mars because we want to expand and explore the unknown, then why not just look at the oceans to fulfill this desire. Exploring the oceans can lead to the possibility of finding all kinds of creatures that dwell on the bottom of the deep ocean. Despite all of the unknowns the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research is the only federal organization currently dedicated to exploring our unknown ocean (US Commerce).

The final reason going to Mars is a bad idea is the unknown effect on the human body. Going to Mars also could have long term effects psychologically and physically on humans that have yet to be fully discovered. A journey to Mars would require, at a minimum, two 6-8 month segments of travel in “deep space” before and after a nominally 18-month stay on the surface of Mars. There are more risks involved in going to Mars than say going to the moon or the ISS. On the trips to and from Mars, the crew will be exposed to microgravity and radiation levels much more severe than that experienced at the ISS in low Earth orbit.

To deal with the radiation, there is a recommendation for a manned mission to Mars, therefore, it requires a spacecraft built with a heavily shielded area that the astronauts can use to protect themselves from life-threatening radiation events (Physiological and Psychological). There is also to consider how humans would respond to being locked up in a small spacecraft for months on end. Perhaps claustrophobia can become a factor among the astronauts. There is also a need to consider the effect this would have on the body, more so the cardiovascular system. Although the cardiovascular and pulmonary systems adapt well in space, they function differently in micro- or zero gravity than on Earth.

An astronaut’s cardiovascular system begins to adapt to weightlessness as soon as the blood and other body fluids shift from their lower extremities (Physiological and Psychological) to the upper body, chest, and head. The shifting of these fluids causes the heart to enlarge so that it is capable of handling the increase of blood flow(Physiological and Psychological). This would result in a build-up of fluid on the upper part of the body which would ultimately end up resulting in a lack of blood circulation.

When going to Mars there are many things to consider overall. There are many positives such as the resources and the new technologies that can be created because of Mars colonization, however, there are major negatives such as why colonize Mars when we haven’t explored the oceans and the sheer amount of money needed to get and sustain a Mars colony. Overall, I believe that we must fix the issues that we have on our planet first, such as global warming and climate change. Investing more resources into this can perhaps allow humans to find a solution, also exploring the ocean can help humans fulfill their desire to explore the unknown man who knows, maybe new technologies can be created by exploring the deep oceans of Earth. The amount of money needed to pull this off can also be well spent on Earth rather than into the stars.