Rallying for a Noble Cause
Did you know that as of August 2018, NASA’s Curiosity Rover had already sent back more than 340,000 photos from Mars? That is a lot of photos on a foreign land.
HOMO SAPIENS
We humans attempted to explore what our ancestors called ‘heavens’ more than half a century ago. But the ‘heavens’ is boundless, and it is infinitely big. The space race that happened in 1955 was a turning point in human history. It pushed the boundary of the scientific community to our closest neighbour — the Moon. The land we’ve reached is merely a tiny fraction of the observable universe. Nonetheless, it is a good start to becoming an interplanetary species.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO BECOME AN INTERPLANETARY SPECIES?
There are many reasons to explore other planets but the following reasons are critical:
- Global Warming
The damage caused by industrialisation to our Mother Earth is undeniable. Global temperature has been rising at a worrying rate. The U.S being one of the countries with highest carbon dioxide emissions withdrew from the Paris Agreement in 2017. This is a huge blow to the efforts of those trying to curb the thorny situation with carbon reducing campaigns. The evidences of global warming are numerous and they are bad news for future generations of people.
- Depleting Resources
Many natural resources are depleting at an alarming rate. Resources like gas, copper, coal and more are entering a production decline. Our most essential resource for basic survival – water is also slowing depleting. Not all water is available for consumption and many are expected to experience water scarcity in the near future. According to Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), by 2025, 1800 million people are expected to live in regions with absolute water scarcity. That is about 25% of the world’s population! (assuming world population to be around 7 billion)
Not forgetting that the world population is also continuously growing, efficient resource allocation would become a challenge to ensure sustenance for people. The United Nations estimates the world population to reach 9.8 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion in 2100. More people, less resources. It is a disconcerting and worrying thought.
Personal Thoughts
I used to ponder, “Why is Elon Musk trying so hard to bring humans onto Mars?” Why does he think that it is necessary to terraform Mars? Recently I had an epiphany. Weather is gradually becoming erratic, summer is feeling hotter, winter is becoming colder in certain regions. News about flash floods and tsunamis are appearing more frequently on TV. Extreme weather events are becoming more intense and more long-lived. These events are estimated to have resulted in at least $8bn in economic damage and at least 4,000 deaths.
Lunchtime chit-chat occasionally involves my colleague telling me, “Hey don’t you think that the weather is lil’ abnormal?” I nodded in concurrence. Summer heat waves are breaking new temperature records, more people die from extreme heat strokes. In July 2018, Taiwan recorded a new high temperature of 40.3°C! In Canada, Quebec, at least 54 deaths have been attributed to the prolonged heatwave and high humidity.
Back to the Main Point
Get interested in Mars, get interested in space exploration. The sheer number of people involved in space-related activities is still asymmetrically proportionate to its importance. I have confidence that in the next century, more resources will be poured into advancing space-related technology. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to contribute to the space community.
Next time Elon Musk tweets something about the Mars mission, give him and his team your full support. Sending humans to Mars is an insane task but I am glad someone took the initiative to plan such a mission. I am sure Elon and his team also realised that the idea that the Earth will be sustainable for a long time is a bubble waiting to be burst.
What Can I Contribute?
I asked myself this question and I derived at 2 solutions,
- Sign up to become an astronaut
- Help generate more interest in the Mars mission (or any other space mission)
I think it is a meaning job to contribute to the world as an astronaut. You may be the first person to land on Mars, you conduct the research on Mars physically and send the data back to Earth to make space travel accessible to more people. You could discover hotspots for mining useful resources.
This solution is rather unpractical for me since I do not belong to a country that has her own space agency.
Needless to say, the risks attached to being an astronaut are colossal. Road to becoming an astronaut would also be an arduous one. Probably only less than 1% of the world population gets to fly to Mars now.
Alternatively, we can influence more people to be interested in space travel. I did my own research and realised that NASA actually open up the Mars photos sent back by the Curiosity Rover to the public. Anyone can freely view the photos. I learnt about how Mars look like through these photos.
I was thinking, “Perhaps I could even spot an anomaly about Mars from the photos!” That got me excited. I sprung into making an app which fetches Mars photos from NASA’s API for users to browse. To make things more interactive, users can leave a comment on the photo they find interesting and the system will automatically tweet it out via the official Twitter account.
If you are interested, check out the iOS app at https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mars-or-earth/id1430539251?ls=1&mt=8
Do give your support and feel free to leave any feedback on the app! Thank you very much!
References
- Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (2018). Water scarcity. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/land-water/water/water-scarcity/en/
- United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs. (2017, June 21) World population projected to reach 9.8 billion in 2050, and 11.2 billion in 2100. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/world-population-prospects-2017.html
- Gabbatiss J. (2017 December 11) Natural disasters increasingly linked to climate change, new report warns. Retrieved from https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change-natural-disasters-link-increase-global-warming-report-warning-a8103556.html
- Watts J. (2018 July 13) Heatwave sees record high temperatures around world this week. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/13/heatwave-sees-record-high-temperatures-set-around-world-this-week
