What Is The Point Of Putting Humans On Mars?
Multiple big companies and agencies including SpaceX and NASA have their futures set on Mars exploration and colonization. However, the red planet is over 200 million miles away and is home to a large list of extremely dangerous conditions. This includes the lack of breathable air, temperature, weather, radiation, and much more. This can bring up the question of why do we even want to put humans on the planet?
Companies and agencies such as SpaceX and NASA want to put humans on Mars for science, inspiration, economic impact, and future human development. These are just a few of the more prominent reasons out of many. In reality, putting humans on the surface and setting up a base would provide limitless benefits to everyday life on Earth and our future.
So far agencies like NASA have put rovers and even a small helicopter on the surface. These are incredible achievements but just the start of future plans. SpaceX has the goal of putting humans on the surface by 2026 while NASA has a more conservative estimate for the 2030s. Both goals are extremely ambitious and would be one of the biggest achievements of humanity.
Who Wants To Put Humans On Mars?
A lot of different agencies throughout the world actually have their sights set on Mars exploration. However, I am going to focus on NASA and SpaceX due to the accelerated and ambitious timeline by both company and the agency. Specifically, as I mentioned before NASA wants to put humans on the planet around the 2030s while SpaceX is aiming for 2026. If we look at NASA’s current plan for putting humans on Mars we have to look at the Artemis mission. This mission is what NASA is currently working on and has the goal of putting humans back on the Moon. NASA not only wants humans back on the surface but also set up a more permanent human presence and base. A big reason for this mission is to prepare for Mars. The agency has pointed out that they want to first test and practice putting humans on a different celestial body prior to going all the way to the red planet. The moon is a couple hundred thousand miles away while Mars is over 200 million. If NASA is successful in putting humans back on the Moon and setting up a more permanent presence, the likely next goal will be humans on Mars.
SpaceX on the other hand has an even more ambitious goal. The private company is progressing through Starship development faster than anything we have seen in the space industry. Starship is meant to be one of the most powerful and biggest rockets in the world. With the goal of each launch only costing $2 million, the mission becomes a lot more feasible. SpaceX plans to create hundreds of Starships filled with cargo, humans, life support, and more. The goal is very ambitious and sounds impossible but SpaceX consistently manages to do incredible things in a short period of time.
Benefits Of Mars Human Presence
Science – The first big benefit of putting humans on Mars is the opportunity in science. In this case, an agency like NASA would have a field day if they had astronauts on the surface of the planet. Throughout time NASA has managed to land rovers and more which have been very helpful. These different pieces of equipment have helped the agency learn a lot. However, the technology on the surface of the planet is extremely limited. There is only so much a rover can do on the Martian surface. If multiple astronauts were consistently on the surface then incredible experiments and science could be done. This would help us learn more about the history of our planet, Mars, the solar system, and more. Not to mention we could learn about possible past or current life. Often times different experiments and science we do in unique environments such as space or on a different planet lead to innovation and evolution of everyday items. The science conducted on the surface could easily affect the everyday life of humans on Earth and not just the future.
Inspiration – Humans are capable of incredible things. A manned mission to Mars would be one of the biggest achievements in humankind. This would be the first time we put humans on a different planet. It would also be the farthest humans ever at over 200 million miles away. While this reality is very daunting it is also extremely inspiring. It helps show everyone what we are capable of and encourages more ambitious goals for the future. People need something exciting and special to keep them going. For a lot of people, a future life outside of Earth and throughout the solar system and beyond is that needed inspiration. Elon Musk finds the inspiration aspect very important saying ” You want to wake up in the morning and think the future is going to be great” when talking about a mission to Mars.
Economic Impact – Another benefit of putting humans on Mars is the economic impact. While putting humans on Mars would be one of our greatest achievements, it would also be one of the biggest challenges. The amount of work in all different departments across the country and world would be immense for a successful human mission. Agencies like NASA currently employ tens of thousands of America’s smartest individuals. NASA and SpaceX would both provide a big positive impact on the economy in the process of just getting to the surface of Mars with humans. Once they are on the planet there will likely be an entire Martian economy and much more. The journey to Mars already is positively impacting the economy thanks to Starship development and more. In the future, it could have an even bigger impact. Humans on the surface of Mars would open up endless new industries and jobs.
Future Human Development – The final reason putting humans on Mars is a good idea is working towards human development and our future. Earth is an amazing planet but it won’t last forever. Unfortunately, there are constant risks including overpopulation, nuclear war, climate change, and more. All of which encourage us to not only work on our own planet but reach out and become multi-planetary. Sending humans to Mars is the first step of expanding human capabilities and reach. There are practically limitless benefits to space exploration and Mars is a step in the right direction. If we want humankind to not only survive long into the future but thrive we need to innovate and expand beyond Earth. Not to mention that in the short term, the process of putting humans on Mars would encourage innovation, development, and inventions that could be helpful for everyday use.
Conclusion
Different agencies and companies across the world have ambitious goals for putting humans on Mars. Some of the bigger agencies and companies include NASA and SpaceX. Both want to send humans by 2026 and the 2030s. This brings up the question of why even go through the trouble of sending humans 200 million miles away. The reason putting humans on Mars is so beneficial is because of science, inspiration, economic impact, and future human development, just to name a few. All of these reasons are strong contributors to NASA and SpaceX’s plans to go to the red planet. The trip and process would be one of humankind’s greatest challenges and achievements if successful. As time goes on we will have to watch different companies and agencies progress along with the impact it ends up having.
