A human mission to Mars would be a great engineering achievement, and it would be the ultimate culmination of 60+ years of rocketry and space exploitation. Enthusiasts have invented a wide variety of justifications for why we should send humans to Mars. In reality, it seems that the real reason to send humans to Mars is that it is the next logical step for human exploration beyond the Moon. One rationale for exploration of the Moon or Mars is based on three themes: science, inspiration and resources. There certainly are significant geological and planetary reasons to explore Mars. But the most pervasive rationale seems to be a search for life, ancient or current. The current belief is that life will evolve on a planet with water, carbon dioxide, and warmth, given a few hundred million years. Since early Mars apparently met that criterion, the Mars Exploration Program was formulated as a search for early life on Mars. All the orbiters and robotic landers on Mars were designed with a principal goal of finding evidence of early life on Mars. So far, no evidence has been found, and there are good reasons to think that it is unlikely that evidence of early life on Mars will ever be detected. Nevertheless, the quest to find life on Mars remains the driving force for exploration.
Why Explore Mars?
Springer Praxis Books(formerly: Springer-Praxis Series)
2023-01-02
14 pages
Aufsatz/Kapitel (Buch)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
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