The Case For Mars (Written by an environmentalist)
“Space. The final frontier.”
When characters from Star Trek say these words, they’re often not fully appreciated. Space really is the final frontier. Humans have barely explored any of it, choosing to hide next to our moon. We’ve sent unmanned shuttles and probes, and explored vast areas, but these are still but a small percent of a fraction of what we could do.
Imagine a time when going to Earth is considered a luxury, not leaving it. It will certainly be a new time in human civilization, a new dawn. I personally believe that time will be the beginning of a much larger beginning; some disagree.
Elon Musk and his endeavors for space have wowed us, the likes of which we’ve only seen with JFK and his promises to go to the moon.
“We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone . . .”
There are people who think we shouldn’t go to Mars. There have been, and will always be, people who are against progress. Those who are against it are not ridiculed by their peers as much as they are by history. Look at the past. Going back in time, there has always been a backlash to progress, whether that’s people against renewable energy, people against smartphones, people against cars, people against abolishing slavery, people against freedom of religion, people against exploring the Americas, even people against reading books. Yes, there was a time when people thought reading books was bad, and it was discouraged. In human history, progress is not constant, but one thing is: pushback.
And the pushback in this case is coming from people who don’t see the whole picture. Basically, their argument is that we shouldn’t go to Mars because we still have issues on Earth. Really? That’s your argument? Should we then have never left caves, because there were issues inside them? Or should we have never started growing agriculture, because plants have problems?
If you’re already convinced that going to Mars is a good thing, great. This article isn’t for you. If you’re not, however, let me convince you — from the perspective of an environmentalist.
It’s really quite fascinating how much of the technology of the NASA missions in the 1960s and 1970s benefited society, and how oblivious many people nowadays are to this. This website really goes into detail, but I’ll summarize some of it here.
Smartphone cameras wouldn’t be a thing without space travel because, during the space missions, cameras were required to be small but still detailed and precise, and this technology transferred to phones.
CAT scans are nowadays considered quite important, and some of the technology came from the space missions.
The GPS is also critical to our modern life, with many people relying on them on a daily basis. Their origin? Space missions.
Even random things like athletic shoes, memory foam, baby formula, and computer mice all owe some of their marvels to those missions.
If all these wonders came from space travel in the past, we must assume that even more wonders will come out of space travel in the future. Perhaps one day there will be something that we all use every day, and that thing will have come out of the Mars missions.
Or maybe the key to saving this planet will come from upcoming space breakthroughs. Who knows, a machine that can take microplastics out of the sea could come along. Or technologies to purify aquifers.
The entire world could be saved by new inventions like these, and you really want to deny science the opportunity to develop them?
In the Mars missions, food will need to be developed that is very high in caloric and nutritional density. There simply isn’t enough room (or time) for baskets of apples, lots of celery, bread, etc. Much of this food will have gone bad before the astronauts even land on Mars.
Imagine a new kind of food. It can fit in the palm of your hand, and it contains all of your nutrition for the day. Calcium, iron, protein, vitamins, everything — you’d get more nutrients in this one meal than most people get in one day. It also would fill you up.
A food like this would be a necessity for long space travel, and could have far-reaching benefits here on Earth. Impoverished and malnourished people could eat this superfood, saving money and time. It could end malnutrition in developing nations.
Some of the technology that could come will be so advanced that we can’t even imagine it today. Imagine telling someone in the 1960s that space travel will lead to the development of smartphone cameras. They’d be confused, and would get even more confused as you explain what a smartphone is. The idea could be so incredible to them that they’d doubt such a technology could come.
Going to space will help us understand our world in the same way that going to another country teaches you about yours. When we go to Mars, we will better understand that world, and we can apply our understanding to Earth. Knowing how to terraform Mars will help us make sure that Earth remains hospitable.
My point is this: those complaining about us going to Mars fail to understand the far-reaching benefits that will come with it. World hunger could be eliminated. Pollution could be reduced to zero. We could come up with extremely efficient renewable energy — and yes,I quote Trump here — the likes of which this world has never seen.
These Mars missions will bring a new era of humanity. Are you ready for it?

