Mars: a New Goal
The exploration of space continues to be one of the boldest, furthest-reaching and most important activities of our time. Throughout history, as far as we know, people have always spread out to new land. The space program is the contemporary manifestation of the same human urge that brought Columbus to the New World nearly five centuries ago.
But in recent years the adventure of the space program has been overshadowed both by the increasing militarization of space and by the civilian efforts to commercialize it. Even before the Challenger accident, the luster that made the space program special had all but disappeared. Space has become just another element in the geopolitical-economic-strategic nexus that binds the nations of the world.
Since the end of the Apollo lunar program more than a decade ago, the United States has lacked a goal in space to match it. The shuttle--now under a cloud--is a thrilling machine, a wonder of technology, but in the end a machine, not a vision of what might be.
In recent months serious and knowledgeable people have spoken of a new goal for the space program--a manned trip to Mars, which is 1,000 times as far from the Earth as the moon is. It would be breathtakingly expensive--$50 billion, by one estimate--and probably wouldn’t happen until after the year 2000, but a round trip to Mars is now technologically within our grasp, and well worth doing.
We have gone to the moon, and now it is time to go beyond. Mars is the only planet in the solar system that is remotely like the Earth, and it gives evidence of having been more like the Earth in the past. It is a laboratory in which scientists could study the development of planets like our own.
There is little likelihood that human beings will want to colonize Mars. Its environment makes Antarctica look hospitable, and there is no great rush to Antarctica, as near as we can tell. But eventually there will be space travel beyond the solar system, and a trip to Mars now is the next small step in that journey.
A round trip to Mars would take two years. It is possible for it to be done jointly with the Soviet Union--a cooperative effort between the superpowers that would be most welcome and should be pursued. There would be problems, but they can be surmounted, and the value of a joint mission to Mars would be so great that it is worth doing the work to make it happen. But if it cannot be done jointly, it is worth doing alone.
The United States should be making plans for a trip to Mars. President Reagan should declare this a national goal, and NASA should set to work.
