The Mars Underground
Pioneers for the Next World
For some, Mars is the answer to man’s future survival. Others say Mars is too far, too dangerous, and too expensive for humans to explore. However, according to some experts, NASA has been going around in circles with the space program instead of focusing on a mission to Mars— the challenge that has been staring scientists in the face.
Mars is the planet most like Earth and it’s the planet with the most life-sustaining resources. Some disagree, though, because if humans are sent to Mars, they need to be returned alive. Nobody has been able to guarantee that this is possible.
Dr. Robert Zubrin, aerospace engineer, firmly believes that Mars is the answer. In the early 1990s he was the head of a program called Mars Direct. His team developed a mission to Mars that could be done with less than NASA’s projected costs and within as little as ten years. Zubrin believes we are at a crossroads: we either muster up the courage to go or stay and risk decay.
The movement to send humans to Mars began at the University of Colorado in 1978 when a graduate student in Astro-Geophysics, Chris McKay, gave a small seminar on the possibility of introducing life to Mars. After Viking 1 landed on Mars, it sent images of resources that could sustain life, but there was no evidence of life. This led a group of graduate students to get together to try to figure out if it were possible to put life there.
Dr. Zubrin along with Dr. Chris McKay formed The Mars Society, whose purpose is to further the exploration and settlement of the Red Planet. This organization has attracted the interest of enthusiasts from all over the world. Watch this documentary now.
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Im so tired of hearing about terraforming Mars. The only reason the Earths atmosphere hasnt been blown off into space by solar bobardment is becaus we have a hot core and thus a magnetosphere to protect us from it. No hot core, no terraforming……
The atmosphere isn’t held in place by the magnetosphere, though. It’s held in place by gravity.
Except without a magnetosphere to protect from solar wind and radiation, the atmosphere is literally blown away “though”… oops. You were wrong.
Dan is right.
Actually your both some what right and wrong. Mars does have a liquid core. The problem is it doesn’t have a molten iron outer core at this time. However, lab tests have shown that this outer core could redeveloped and give it back the magnetic field they believe it once had.
How about the fact that it will take eons and eons and eons for whats there now, on mars, to blow away into space. Let alone what will be added by Humans. Oops rob, Dan is wrong and your a tool. The threat to life from no magnetic core is radiation, you tard. If life can find a way to withstand that then it will have no problem replenishing what is lost to solar wind. Even if life doesn’t adapt, the atmosphere will still be around for a very very very very (one more in case you don’t get the point) very long time. Eat a bag of dicks Rob. God Damn, I love being right on the Internet!
The government, behind the government has been there…
Why would we need to go to Mars? If we are such an advanced civilization, why not fix the problem on Earth?
Spend the time and money on surviving here, not running away.
The only way to fix the problem is to cull half of the humans on earth; time and money won’t do it!
There is just no way in he… this is ever going to be possible. Doesn’t matter how “far” we go in science, it will never be far enough to even consider this. Re-activate a planets core? Move tons of ppl and so on through a vast distance of space….nope, not going to happen by a species not able to solve its problems on the planet it already inhabits. We are hardly able to co-exist without killing each other here….
Just take a look at the technology we had a 100 years ago, when going into the first world war. People back then wouldn´t have imagined the capabilities we have today, not even in their wildest dreams.
The amazing thing about scientific discoveries is that we never know what we will find, before we find it. And even 25 years ago, some of the technology we have today was just science fiction. I can remember a time before the internet, before gps, before cellphones. And I am not that old.
I really look forward to the marvels I will see when I am 50, or 60 years old.
He seems to be angry and emotional which is clouding thinking. He contradicts himself by overstating the massive technological advances that would be realized from a Mars Mission but we would reuse existing technology. If you think about it, it is really just a bigger, longer Apollo program. Ergo, the only rational reason for going to Mars would be scientific discovery.
In an age of huge advances in robotic technology, machine learning, drones….. Any scientific discovery can be done by unmanned vehicles at much less cost and far greater results. This frees up funds for many more scientific missions in the solar system.
If and when terraforming and reactivating the Mars core are feasible, that could be accomplished by unmanned vehicles. Get the planet livable before sending humans. This approach would create a much greater boom in technological advancements than just repeating the Apollo program.
Dr. Zubrin is stuck in a 1960’s era way of thinking and technology has passed him by. He is obviously great at mission architecture, he just has the wrong mission. We can extend the reach of humanity by developing technology to be our eyes and ears outside the planet earth.
Best to keep human space flight on hold, until there is a habitable destination.
Zubrin is a visionary, nothing wrong with his vision of Mars. I would like to see this happen since domestic and international criminals are taking over