Monday, March 18, 2013

Natural Monopoly: Space Travel to Mars?


By: Sam M. 

How often do you hear about Mars and the economy at the same time? I’ll guess not very often, but now is one time that you will. On Tuesday March 12, NASA scientists reported the results of a chemical analysis done by the newest NASA rover Curiosity on powder gathered when drilling into Martian rock. John Grotzinger, leader of the Curiosity Rover project, and scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, said in a news conference, “We have found a habitable environment that is so benign, and supportive of life, that probably if this water was around and you had been on the planet, you would have been able to drink it." The powder was found to have chemicals that are required to sustain life, and that slightly salty water with a neutral pH balance was once at the spot test by the rover. Curiosity will conduct around

Though this discovery makes the United States the unquestioned leader of scientific exploration outside of our home planet, is it all for the better? Although some may postulate otherwise, my answer is yes. This discovery reaffirms the United States as the leader in extra terrestrial and inter-planetary science. In addition, the current cost of the Curiosity Rover Mission is only right around 2.5 billion dollars, for something that could in the next couple generations turn into the first ever vacation destination outside our atmosphere. The possibility of commercial trans-planetary travel would bring untold riches to the economy of the United States, who is the only country to successfully land a probe on Mars, and keep contact with it.

The company Mars One has put a plan in place to create a permanent human settlement on Mars by the year 2023. The Mars One website says about the plan, “[We have] developed a precise, realistic plan based entirely upon existing technologies. It is both economically and logistically feasible, in motion through the integration of existing suppliers and experts in space exploration.” This year, the Mars One team will select the group of astronauts who will most likely become the first humans on Mars, and will create a replica of the Mars One establishment on Earth in order for the astronauts to train for the upcoming missions. The medical and physical requirements for Mars One are, “The applicant must be free from any disease, any dependency on drugs, alcohol or tobacco, must have the normal range of motion and functionality in all joints, visual acuity in both eyes of 100% (20/20) either uncorrected or corrected with lenses or contact lenses, free from any psychiatric disorders. It is important to be healthy, with an age- and gender-adequate fitness level. Blood pressure should not exceed 140/90 measured in a sitting position. The standing height must be between 157 and 190 cm (which is around 5’2”-6 ’3”).”

So if you’d like to become one of the first humans to venture on to another planet, this may be your opportunity, and you may help give the United States government the next great vacation destination, and make us have a natural monopoly on the market of inter-planetary travel.

3 comments:

  1. It is a very interesting concept of travelling to another planet, and the fact that the United States is in the lead with regards to planetary exploration. I understand your ideas, but I disagree, and I don’t think that it is necessary for the U.S. to conduct research outside of our own planet. It is a good source of knowledge, but it also costs billions of dollars to do so, and our country is already in enough debt. It would be cool to learn more about the other planets, but I don’t think that we are in a financially stable place to do so at this time.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is a very interesting topic. We are talking about settling on another world within the next decade. That is a huge step, but would be a great chance to travel into another world. This is a remarkable thing that they can do that but what about the economy this would hurt it more unless they teamed up with other countries to do so. So I like that they are able to do this but I don't like them using another couple billion dollars to do so.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I thought that the chance to continue space exploration and explore all the different things out there that we have never seen is an incredible thing to discover for our country. I believe however that before we continue space exploration, we need to use our money towards getting our country out of debt. Having people travel to mars will take millions or billions of dollars to do. Our main focus right now should be the debt that we are already in.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...