How to Go to Mars--Right Now!

Finally, the crew returns to Earth in the ERV. Meanwhile, a second crew is on its way to Mars. Thus every other year, two heavy-lift boosters are launched: one to carry a crew, the other to prepare a site for the next mission. As the missions progress, they leave behind a string of bases that open up ever broader stretches of territory. At an average launch rate of just one booster per year to pursue a continuing program of Mars exploration, this plan is clearly affordable. In effect, it removes the manned Mars mission from the realm of megafantasy and reduces it to a task whose difficulty is comparable to that faced in launching the Apollo missions to the moon.

But why do it? First, for the knowledge. We are now fairly certain that Mars once possessed oceans in which life could have developed. If we discover fossils on Mars or extant life surviving in subsurface water, it would be the most important discovery since Copernicus theorized that Earth revolves around the sun.

Second, for the challenge. People thrive on challenge and wither without it. The space program also needs a challenge. Between 1961 and 1973, with the impetus of the moon race, NASA produced a rate of technological innovation immeasurably greater than anything it has shown since, for an average budget that was only about 25 percent bigger than today’s. It did so because it was reaching for a seemingly impossible goal. The Apollo program also strongly stimulated the U.S. economy and inspired a generation of schoolkids to pursue science and engineering. A humans-to-Mars program would do the same.

Third, for our future. Mars is not just a scientific curiosity. It is our New World. Someday, millions of people could live there. Today we have the opportunity to be the founders, the parents, and the shapers of a new and dynamic branch of the human family. It is a privilege we should embrace.

For more articles, go to Special Report: Why Mars? Why Now?