NASA’s Exploration of Mars
Dr. John Grotzinger, a friend from high school, has become the spokesperson for NASA’s exploration of Mars. Here’s an article he wrote in a recent issue of National Geographic that I thought readers would enjoy.
The relevance to 2GreenEnergy? I could talk about the program’s use of solar energy, or the inevitability of space migration as part of humankind’s development. After all, when we’ve polluted our environment to the point that it no longer supports life, we’ll want to take the show on the road, and bring our gift to the rest of the galaxy.
But both of these are stretching the point; I hope you’ll simply enjoy the article. “Grotz” (as we called him) is a terrific guy and I think you’ll agree that he writes with an infectious charm.
I understand that the major challenge for long term space travel for humans (such as to Mars) is our inability to create a shield against gamma radiation, and a single burst of gamma from the sun, which happens fairly often, would be lethal to the entire crew of a craft with even our most advanced technology. We can make it to the moon and back fairly safely in a matter of days or weeks with low probability of such an event, but I think even the crew of the international space station is substantially risking death from a gamma burst.
…not to mention the fact that attempts to create a sealed closed loop artificial ecosystem have failed fairly miserably even here on earth, when resources were available and plentiful. Further, our ability to terraform a planet like Mars (as tamely hostile as it is in comparison to the other planets within our tenuous reach) is quite inadequate to the task. Best focus our energies on surviving here sustainably, don’t you think?
Indeed. While there is still time.