Global warming, the recent changes in our climate and the rate of pollution and other hazardous occurrences which of most are caused by we humans can only lead to one major conclusion, the end of the human race.
Late scientist and physicist, Stephen Hawking stated that the human race cannot survive unless we become multi-planetary species. By multi-planetary, that means “two planets” or “consisting of two planets”. This instigated an Idea that Earth should be purely residential and all industrial work should be moved to the moon. This also brought about the idea of the mission to mars. The CEO of SpaceX has proposed the development of mars transportation infrastructure in order to facilitate the eventual colonization of mars. The mission architecture includes fully reusable launch vehicles, human-rated spacecraft, on-orbit propellant tankers, rapid-turnaround launch mounts, and local production of rocket fuel on mars via in Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU). SpaceX’s aspirational goal is to land the first humans on mars in 2024. Before any people are transported to mars, some number of cargo missions would be undertaken in order to transport the equipment, habitat and supplies. Equipment that would accompany the early groups will include “machines to produce fertilizer, methane and oxygen from mars’ atmospheric nitrogen and carbon dioxide and the planet’s subsurface water ice” as well as construction materials to build transparent domes for crop growth. SpaceX plans to create a permanent Martian colony with all these complex life support systems and facilities. The current number of people that SpaceX intends to send to mars is currently unknown but the CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk says that as their plans advance, they would eventually move a million humans to mars. The journey to mars is supposedly nine months.
The mars mission seems to be a way to extend and preserve the human race longer than the estimated time that was predicted by a group of scientists. And this mission, if successful will only prove one thing, the human race is evolving. This mission is in some ways, necessary. What if we’re all alone in the universe and an asteroid should destroy Earth? This would lead to the loss of consciousness and that would be the greatest loss of all.
On the other hand, this could also be a suicide mission. First off, no one knows what is truly out there and the worst time to find out would be on the way to the final destination when there will be low chances of the aversion of these circumstances. The Earth is covered by a magnetic field which protects us from harmful space radiation. Mars doesn’t have It’s own magnetic field and the atmosphere provides little shelter from cosmic radiation, so there is a risk of over exposure and imminent death when the humans will be out of the Earth’s atmosphere for approximately nine months, since that’s how long the journey to mars is supposed to last. Although there is plenty of work being conducted but radiation protection technology is a long way behind other aspects of rocketry.
Elon Musk wants to save the very thing that makes us human, our consciousness. He has shown that he is willing to sacrifice his time and massive brainpower to see us to mars quickly as his sketchbooks can get us there.
Olaluwoye Oluwatofarati Oreoluwa,Mass Comm. Dept.,Year 2, Babcock University,Ilisan