As some of you may have heard, the
United States has announced that they will actually be attempting a manned
flight to Mars.
My thought on this is twofold: I
would definitely like to see us be able to start colonizing outer space in my
lifetime. For all the cynical remarks about how we wreck the planet, we are
also capable of doing a lot of amazing, positive things and I think it would be
great if we could somehow continue as a species after the Earth is no
more. It would also be great if we could
relieve a bit of the pressure on the Earth that way.
Also, people who are cynical about
human existence often have soft spot for other animals, particular dogs and cats. If humans die off because we use up all the
resources, most if not all the other lifeforms do as well.
Plus even more colonizing, which
would be a later step, we might learn a great deal about our own planet from
whatever samples would be obtained from Mars.
And of course, for a few hours we could honestly say for sure that there
is life on Mars!
My main concern though is that
there have been a number of manned space flights that have ended in
disaster. What I’d like to see instead
is some reinforces made, then another attempt to the moon, and then, if that
goes well attempt the extra resources (more food, greater psychological
profiling etc) that would be needed for the longer trip to Mars. More costly in the short term, reater benefit
in the long term.
And hey, doesn’t the thought of
kitties eventually making it into outer space and being able to satisfy their curiosity
about other planets sound appealiong?
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