Mission to Mars

Now that the simulation for a manned Mars mission, experiment MARS-500 has ended successfully I wanted to post some of my thoughts about space exploration here on my blog.

I have always been interested in science and astronomy - I even have my own mirror telescope. Haven't been watching the stars actively in late years, but every once in a while I get so excited when I hear new great news about space exploration. A manned Mars mission, even being in it's early planning stage, is one such news.

Concept for NASA Design Reference Mission Architecture 5.0 (2009) Retrieved from Wikipedia.

If I was asked what is the single most greatest achievement in the history of mankind, I don't think I could answer anything else than: "Putting man on the moon". Beating the forces of gravity, dealing with the vacuum, radiation of space and then landing on a stellar object far away from Earth and then getting back safely.. it just shows how great things human being can actually do, when they really push it. And they did that in the 60's! Imagine the computers of that time. These days your phone has more processing power than NASA's computers back then.. and still they managed to pull it off (unless you're one of the conspiracy theorists).

Anyway, I guess they succeeded because they poured almost unlimited amounts of money into the space program. Of course, it was a silent battle against Soviet Union those days and a nation's creditability was at stake. But no matter the motives, I hope they will get all the resources they need to pull of a mission to Mars, since I believe any investment in such great endeavor is always better than just raising the amount of money spent to warfare and such.

I would be glad just to see a colony on the Moon too, if Mars is still too far away for any executable program. The main reason is that I simply think "it's good to not keep all the eggs in the same basket". Or how'd you express that in English? =) The idea of human race being able to survive (for some time) even a planet-scale disaster by doing something so bold just lifts my spirit. We truly should dare to reach out for the skies - and succeed in it.

I want to conclude with a message to the people at NASA, words coming from Arnold Schwarzenegger in the classic sci-fi/action film Total Recall: GET YOUR ASS TO MARS!

Arnold on the surface of Mars in Total Recall. Not the most credible movie in history, but great entertainment!