Question

: During June of 1997: Steve Wall, the Advanced Projects Design Team Leader at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, estimated that a human mission to Mars could be done for half price when compared to the expenses related to getting a man on the Moon and back several decades ago. A half-price sale seems like a bargain! But, is the anticipated 30-40 billion dollars to get a human to Mars and back worth it? Considering that the costs associated with getting humans to the moon in the 60’s and 70’s was about 70 billion dollars (according to S. Wall) when adjustments for inflation are made, this puts our modern space exploration missions (the ISS and Mars) at rock bottom prices…..right? For such low prices, discuss your opinion on sending people to Mars. Is it worth the price? What advantages do we have for sending people vs. rovers? How else could we use the money?

Answer 1

Answer:

This is really a personal opinion, since whether it is correct to send people to mars or not depends largely on your point of view and personal beliefs. Clearly, humans are far more capable than robots, and they can explore space and eventually other planets much better than a rover. On the other hand, sending people to Mars is not only extremely expensive, but it is also extremely dangerous for the astronauts themselves.

Imagine so many people died trying to get to space and then to the moon, and that was very easy compared to getting to Mars and back.

We can find millions of better ways to use the money than sending people to space, and that is really hard to argue against. Our planet, our country, state or even city could all benefit and use the money more productively.

But lets say that we do not care about the money because Mr. Bezos or some other billionaire decided to donate it. Now we would face the technical issues of going to Mars and actually staying there for a long time. A trip to mars is not something that would be carried out for just a couple of hours (like moon walking). Astronauts will have to stay in Mars for weeks, months or even years before they can return. This results in an extreme danger to their health due to cosmic rays. Can humans survive long term exposure to cosmic rays? The answer is NO and Mars's atmosphere doesn't help.

If we analyze this situation from a technical point of view, it would be better and safer to send astronauts to Titan (Saturn's moon), and would probably be also more useful. Titan's environment is similar to Earth's in many ways, and if we are actually doing it for a scientific purpose besides simply being curious, then it is much more useful to go to Titan. The scientific purpose of going to mars instead of other possible destinations is not very solid. Mars is really different to Earth and unless someone finds Martians living there, there is not much you can do.