Is trying to put a man on mars worth the expense, I think I heard the cost was almost a trillion dollars.?

Question

what will it accomplish by doing this, Mars is a hostile invironment, the trip time is i think 18 months. So were spending a trillion dollars to put a USA flag and some footprints on the green planet, WHY?

Shakkar, we cant even get it right here on earth and this is our homeland, no other place in our solar system can support human life, we know of no other place that can, the nearest star after our solar system is 4 light years away, do you know how far a lightyear is? figure how many seconds in a year and times it by 186,000 mps, thats "miles per second" It takes 4 years to get the the nearest star at that speed, it will take us 60,000 years to travel to the nearest star at the speed we can travel, sooooooooo?

Answer 1

I think it's worth the expense, for several reasons. (keep in mind the expense will be spread out over decades.)

1) It satisfies the human desire to explore, and expand our domain. This is not a trivial reason. I'm talking about a deeply seated instinct.

2) Establishing a colony on another planet ensures the survival of the species if the Earth should ever suffer a catastrophic event. Stephen Hawking himself has advanced this argument.

3) The best reasons are the unimagined discoveries we will make once we are there. In 1491, who could have predicted the discovery of America and all the subsequent discoveries that has led to?

Answer 2

You have to take the long view. This planet will not support us forever. We need the ability to relocate the human race to other worlds if we hope to survive as a species indefinitely. The trip to Mars is just an early step towards that goal. The Science and techniques invented and spun off from the space program has paid for itself many times over. There is no telling how many benefits we will get from it in the future.

Answer 3

Mars isn't hostile, nor green. It's cold and dry. May have dust storms from time to time. It would take about 10 months to get there with our current space craft. Big problem is food and water for one or two persons. "Why" ? Because man is an explorer. That's why the earth is a mess now. Men were'nt happy just to stay in the area they were born in. I see the chances of anyone ever "living" on Mars as ZERO. Just putting a man there isn't going to happen in our life time. The way things are going, we are going to destroy ourselves long before any of this could happen.

Answer 4

The technological advances that will result from this effort will greatly enrich the lives of everyone. It wouldn't even be possible for most of us to own computers had it not been for the development that accompanied the space program. Many other products have also resulted, such as Teflon. I also agree that the human race needs to explore. Doing this helps keep us from turning our energies toward violence. It gives us a frontier, and we as a species really need a frontier. There are few frontiers left on earth.

Answer 5

We are willing (seemingly) to spend OUR money for this. If there are discoveries made. No doubt natural resources like iron or some such mineral or even gem ,who do you think will benefit from it?
Do you think we will (the people who invested this money in the first place) ? NO WAY ! Big business will and then they will sell the discoveries to us so we can pay for them again. No I think the entire space program should be reduced and limited to only non- manned flight. Much cheaper, much less risk. There are plenty of things we can invest more in right here on earth. We can't cure the cold, cancer, numerous other things. Invest the money on earth, not in the vastness of space.

Answer 6

I think the real point is the search for knowledge. Many of the luxuries we enjoy today have come from this search for knowledge, not always on purpose either. Wasn't cooking with microwaves discovered accidentally? Money is just a tool. 150 years ago we didn't have airplanes or cars. Maybe we will discover something we never thought of. Maybe not, but America wasn't discovered until someone went looking for it.