It is a matter of time and distance.
Currently it takes about seven months to travel to Mars with existing
technology and it is not like Lewis and Clark traveling across the west. The
land that they traversed had been inhabited by hundreds of thousands of people
long before Jamestown. While it presented some challenges regarding shelter and
survival, food and air were generally not one of them.
While our technology may improve over the
next thousand years, do we have that long? Even if we are successful in
planting a remote outpost on Mars, where do we go if that is not feasible. We
don’t need to lose hope, but we need to be realistic and protect what we have
while we research and weigh options in the future when earth will cease to
exist and if the human race has any chance of surviving, we need to be
investing now in energy technology that will buy our future generations time.
Coal, oil, and natural gases are finite
resources and they will run out. If we continue to kick the can down the road
hoping it will bump into a resolution to this problem, we delude ourselves and
do a grave injustice to those that will be here after us.
I feel like this question also relates to something Klein was talking about relating to what type of stories we needed. Yes, space exploration is something that has some importance and something that would be incredible to experience even if you're just watching someone else make the trip or whatever the case may be. But it boils back down to the whole point of the book, that we can't continue to treat the environment like crap and use it and abuse it to our wishes because there will be some kind of fix we develop down the road. Space exploration or Mars colonization shouldn't be a solution or reason to continue doing what we have been doing, it should be something entirely different in and of itself.
ReplyDeleteShould we go to Mars? I say yes because who wouldn't think that would be awesome. But should it be because we have already destroyed the planet so in order to survive we take this last ditch effort? I lean on the side of probably not it would be much more beneficial to fix our current problems instead.
I agree with Kevin, we should go - i.e., we should commence thinking about going, planning to go, preparing to go - for good reasons, and not to escape the consequences of our plunder. We should "boldly go," in the spirit of exploration and discovery, because we're an inquisitive (not just an acquisitive) species. And, we should go on behalf of all humankind.
ReplyDeleteSpace exploration has always intrigued me since I was very young. Not in the Star Wars or Star Trek type of science fictional interests, but as a desire to see Earth from above and feel infinite space all around me. I'm running off on a rant, so to get to the point, I would encourage a frontier to Mars first of all because I have not seen such an expedition in my lifetime. Secondly, this would spark a whole new wave of space frontiers that hopefully my children would be inspired to study and possibly participate in.
ReplyDeleteI agree, we should go. We should go because it has been many records showing that life may have already lived on mars. It sounds crazy but seems to hold some merit. The water indentures and faces in the mountains rais many question. I doubt that it can be inhabited but we may learn great things from the environment. Things we can use to better our world.
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