Is it worth it to send people to Mars?

Question

The cost of sending people to mars would be many times more than that of sending machines.
"Spirit" and "Opportunity" were an amazing success, surpassing many of our expectations ( or at least mine).
Do you think sending humans to mars is worth the astronomical price?

Answer 1

Absolutely I do. By denying exploration of space, we're dooming ourselves to remain on the Earth - and it's not going to last forever. Whether we destroy it ourselves, or get smacked with an asteroid, if we aren't able to adapt to space, then we'll be extinct when the Earth isn't capable of supporting us anymore.

Our future lies in space - we should start making the journey as soon as we can.

Answer 2

We ARE NOT a race of explorers. Maybe 10,000 years ago when our ancestors followed the mammoth herds we could have claimed that title, but even then we were following the herds. Throughout history men have been stay-at-homes, almost never venturing more than 20 miles from their home in a life time. Explorers were RARE.

Mars is worthless. There is absolutely nothing on mars that you cant get in western Nebraska except for mountains 3 times the size of Everest. Even if they found a Bacterial colony, so what. A couple of years ago the conventional wisdom was that finding life on another planet would have huge theological implications. Then the covers of newpapers were covered with the news that life had been found in a martian meteorite. No one really cared. Later it turned out that the evidence was somewhat controversial, but the fact was that nobody cared. So do we really want more bacteria? Don't we have enough Bacteria? What good would more Bacteria do anybody?

Answer 3

Not so many generations ago, people in Europe asked the same question about exploration of other continents. Other planets are even more inhospitable, so of course people are asking the same questions about space exploration.

The best way I can answer is to say that we are a race of explorers. We will leave our tiny planet and we will explore Mars. I have no doubt that eventually we will even colonize mars. Who knows? It may even be possible some day to "terriform" mars, making it a much friendlier place for human habitation.

Some day, I have no doubt that we will travel beyond mars, perhaps even to other star systems. Despite the (forgive me) astronomical distances involved, I think many years from now we will find a way. We can't help ourselves, it's in our nature!

I attached a link with all sorts of interesting information regarding plans for exploration and colonization of Mars.

I also attached a link with information about the "space elevator," which if built would greatly lower cost and energy consumption involved in interplanetary travel.

Answer 4

the coolest thing approximately sending adult adult males to Mars replaced into placed into attitude for me as quickly as I examine at the instant that what takes a form of little rovers on the crimson planet each and every week to do could take a human in a spacesuit twenty minutes. . the quantity of money you may throw at a undertaking like a manned holiday to Mars has to rely on how lots the tax payers values and are prepared to pay for the advancment of technology. . NASA has progressed and then trashed 2 finished area transportation structures (Apollo/holiday) and is now going to commence as quickly as greater. We had the technologies and the hardware to construct a Moon base thirty years in the past. the call to junk all the Apollo hardware and build the gap holiday all of us be responsive to now replaced right into a mistake. . NASA now desires to end the ISS and thoroughly wash it hands of the undertaking by employing 2016. they are going to "get out of the gap station company" and concentrate on the recent lunar software. That replaced into no longer money nicely spent. . they are conversing approximately 8,000 lay offs while the holiday retires. That tells you the way bloated that payroll is. All that money and persons for 5 flights a three hundred and sixty 5 days. how many peope could it have taken if the factor ever flew weekly like it replaced into proposed. . My answer, no. historic past tells us that NASA isn't reliable with money. .

Answer 5

Worth the price? For who?

Science? No.

The contractors building the equipment? Absolutely.

But since it is an open secret that there would be no space science research without the contractor pork (politicians do not believe in pure science without kickback for their real constituents), we got to keep porking, just so we can send the rovers and our other probes.

I think that is called the price of compromise. Or was it the price of progress?

:-)

Answer 6

curiosity of human beings not only prompted them to explore continents,oceans planets but also far away galaxies & so on.Right now there are 105+ elements found on earth as per periodic table, may be we find some more on moon & many more on mars.This will give rise to more options to humans to develop more useful,durable,sustainable things out of it.
Again with the help of nanotechnology scientists are trying to reduce the mass of future satellite considerably thereby reducing fuel requirement.Efforts are on to make reversible sattelites which are capable of bringing back to earth as desired.
I n short with further technological developments it is possible to reduce considerably the future costs of missions
.We all know that our SUN in approximately after 5 billion years may possibaly distruct life on earth completly.Still plenty of time but i think sooner we begin better for all .
So it is challenge for human race to colonize earth like planets available in universe. So i think it is right step to send men on mars no matter what it cost.

Answer 7

I believe so. One of the things I remember from my childhood are the lunar landings and the Apollo program. While it would be difficult to make a case that sending people will have any monetary payback, there are intangible gains such as national pride and the advancement of knowledge. We have less space capability now than when I was a kid and that is a shame.

Answer 8

Absolutely. We need to figure out how to get to the farthest reaches of the Universe. It would be a travesty, and a waste of the human intellect, to not explore as much of space as we can.

At some point, we're going to need to move off of this planet, and it will be important to have an alternate location in our back pocket.

Answer 9

I can think of a few I'd like to send there.

Answer 10

It will have to be done eventually. --Might as well do it now.