why do many scientist support sending astronauts to mars?

Question

why do many scientist support sending astronauts to mars even though the viking probe found no sighs of life on that planet

Answer 1

It's not so much the Martian life that might have been there, but rather, the Earthly life that we could send there in the event of, oh say, an anticipated global-killer meteor hit here until everything cooled down and Earthly re-seeding could begin. Aside from that, we humans, we explore.

Answer 2

While the Viking probe found no signs of life, it did find that there has been abundant liquid water on the planet in the past, which is one of the major requirements for life as we know it. The Viking was only able to run a few limited tests, and there may be many places for life to be hiding that we would not yet be able to detect.

That said, not many scientists supports sending people to Mars. As an astronomer, I know at least 100 scientists who think it's a bad idea, and only a couple who support it. The reason is that it is 100 to 1000 times more expensive to send a person to Mars than a robot, whoch does not need air, water, or food. I have not seen any good reason why it would be scientifically useful to send people.

The main reason NASA is planning for a mission to Mars is that it takes orders from the President, who has said that we should go to Mars. That is a political decision, not a scientific one.

Answer 3

Actually, we're not. As an astronomer, I see no need to send people to Mars - or even the Moon again. I think it's a tremendous waste of money (not to mention they'd probably just be stranded there) when we can easily send robots to do the same work - and we do, often.

It's the president who got that idea - not many actual scientists agree that that's a good way to spend the budget.

Answer 4

Manned area missions are certainly a "warm button" subject rely in the tech worldwide. If by some potential the wide-unfold public can get excited approximately sending a guy to Mars, it particularly is plenty like development a bridge to Hawaii from Gilligan's Island. There would be artwork for each man or woman.

Answer 5

- The challenge - why do people climb Everest?
- Curiosity - this has always motivated exploration and discovery (along with the hope for economic or political gain)
- Development of cutting edge technology - You work on tough problems and you come up with new solutions (translate into national economic and military advantage)
- Lots of additional government funding for engineers and scientists - also called enlightened self interest - like being employed

Answer 6

Mars being close to earth and with situations close to earth may still give us many clues as to the formation of solar system and life of earth itself.There are hundreds of aspects that one would like to know about our solar system and about ourselves.

Answer 7

Because they believe that earth will eventually get distroyed and that life could be possible in mars.They have even planed some plants which are somehow surviving there.

Answer 8

Recently it has been almost proven that there was water flowing on Mars. It is pretty certain that there was life there.