The Future of Colonization in Mars
Problem
The inability to ferry humans to the distant outer space is the major hindrance to the future colonization of Mars – the Earth’s closest neighboring planet. Humans are likely to travel to Mars in this century. Efforts are being made by various organizations to take people to the red planet in the near future. According to Loomis (2018), the United States space agency, the National Aeronautical Space Administration (NASA) plans to send humans to Mars in the 2030s. Also, private space travel and aviation organizations are not left behind. For instance, the American firm SpaceX is likely to dispatch its first crew mission to Mars in the early 2020s according to the laid down plans. Nevertheless, it is important to note that sending people to colonize Mars is a complicated issue that is likely to impede the efforts to visit, explore and establish permanent human presence in Mars.
Any colonization requires people. That is to say, people must be ferried or transported to the targeted area so that they can start colonizing it. Colonization is the act of establishing control over the natives of a place or the area itself. With no evidence of life in Mars, colonizing the planet would therefore mean conquering and establishing control over the planet. That would mean people could start living, farming, and working in Mars. As a matter of fact, this demonstrates why the ability to ferry people there could be significant for a successful colonization.
The humans’ lack of capacity to make crewed missions to Mars is a problem that makes colonization of the space beyond the International Space Station and the Moon a pipedream. Actually, colonizing another planet would not only need a lot of resources but also many people who could play diverse responsibilities in such a risky undertaking. A mission to our solar system’s fourth planet from the sun would, in no doubt, be risky for various reasons. As Bharmal notes, “the journey to Mars for humans would be hard. It’s expensive. It’s dangerous. It’s boring” (2018). Given that Mars is millions of miles away from our planet, the challenge of transporting people there becomes even more real. Bearing in mind that the resources to realize a mission to Mars are astronomical, the opponents of manned visits to the planet propose numerous alternatives so as to minimize the costs.
WOULD YOU AGREE THE RED IS NOT AS CLEAR AS THE YELLOW? AND YELLOW COULD BE MORE CONCISE AS WELL.
Their first argument against manned missions is to send robots to Mars instead of humans. Their second argument against ferrying humans to space is to continue using space probes to explore the planet. However, according to the proponents of manned space missions, sending robots or artificial intelligence and space probes are not reliable approaches that can make the colonization of Mars possible. In spite of robots being much inexpensive than humans as they do not need much support infrastructure like oxygen, food and water, the machines would not settle and control Mars in the same way people would do (Bharmal, 2018).In this regard, ferrying men and women to our neighboring world remains the key to any meaningful future colonization of Mars.
HI FOR THIS SECTION, USE MORE SOURCES, INCLUDE PAGE OR PARAGRAPH NUMBERS, WORK ON THE CLARITY AND STYLE (GRAMMAR TOO).
Blame
Distance is the sole reason that makes ferrying people to Mars a difficult task. A trip to the red planet might take between one and two years. Thus, such an expedition would need a huge amount of fuel. Obviously, trips that cover long distances require adequate supply of fuel. Basically, the distance between our planet and Mars is, one average, 225 million kilometers or 140 million miles according to NASA’s official measurements (Sharp, 2017). Nonetheless, the distance between the two planets is constantly changing. For instance, the farthest the two celestial bodies can be from each other is about 401 million kilometers whilst the closest they can be from each other is approximately 54.6 million kilometers. Even if humans were to time Mars and land there when it is closer to the Earth, 54.6 million kilometers is such a huge distance to guarantee a timely and safe landing.
FOR ALL THE RED, TRY TO BE CLEARER, MAKE LOGICAL SUBJECT THE GRAMMATICAL SUBJECT AND, AND BE MORE CONCISE.
The issue of distance is madecomplex by the governments’ lack of commitment in finding a technology that would help rapid space travel. All governments across the world have not demonstrated any extreme commitment in discovering a means of transport that would make it possible to travel for cosmic distances across the vacuum of space within shorter periods.
EXAMPLE ON HOW TO IMRPOVE STYLE: AMERICAN SPACE TECHNOLOGY, EVEN THOUGH IT ADVANCED IMPRESSIVELY IN THE 60S AND 70S, CAN ONLY LAND IN THE ISS….AND THE MOON ….
The American government which made strides in the space exploration in the 1960s and 70s possesses a technology that can only land man in the ISS (about 350 kilometers from the Earth’s surface) and the Moon (about 400,000 kilometers from Earth).
Given the nature of space and the intrigues of travelling for big distances across it, such a technology cannot be reliedon to expeditehuman colonization of Mars in the near future.
This can be attributedto the fact that the chemical engines used to launch a rocket into the outer space with a powerful blast are not ideal for propelling a spacecraft to another planet (Loomis, 2018). Moreover, there are no stopovers or gas stations between our planet and Mars. If there were such facilities, Mars-bound spacecrafts would stop and fuel there hence making a manned journey there realistic in our times. Nevertheless, without fueling stations, space travellers have to carry their fuel with them so they can fuel their space vehicles from time to time along the way (Clarke, 2015). In addition, they will need engines that can travel for many miles per a gallon of fuel.
Normally, although manned missions to Mars have been a widely discussed topic in the recent times, serious policies to make such trips feasible have not been developed or implemented. The US, for instance, has drastically cut down the budget for funding space exploration. This reeks of dishonest for a country whose official government space agency wants to colonize Mars by the year 2030. Although interplanetary distances is a naturally occurring phenomenon that is almost accidental, without a technological means that reduces the cost of fuel and or shortens travel-time between Earth and Mars, colonizing the fourth planet from our star will always remain a fantasy.
Meanwhile, opponents of Martian colonization blame other reasons, other than distance, for making it impossible for humans to settle and control the red planet. They say, Mars is an inhospitable wasteland that has little or no atmosphere and is exposed to surface radiation that is roughly 100 times severe than the Earth’s. All the same, it is important to note that people can train to adapt to and survive for longer durations in microgravity in hostile environmental conditions such as Mars’ (Clarke, 2015). Nonetheless, if interplanetary distance and travel-time is not reduced, people cannot reach Mars hence their adaptation and survival skills in increased radiation may not benefit Martian colonization in any way. MAKE SURE TO HAVE DIRECTION QUOTATIONS.