- Missions to Mars Are of Little Consequence to Mankind
INTRODUCTION:
Other than the moon, no object in our solar system has attracted more space exploration than Mars. Of 30 missions sent to Mars by three countries over 40 years, less than 1 in 3 have been successful.
Did you know that almost 1 penny out of every dollar in the U.S. federal budget goes toward NASA? That may not sound like a lot, until you hear their budget is 14 billion dollars a year. Some of this 14 billion dollars could otherwise be spent to help in the fight against diseases, famine, crime, terrorists, illiteracy, and other social and economic problems. The following question has been asked of NASA: "Why not reduce the amount of money spent on space exploration and increase spending on social programs?". NASA responded that diverting this money into social programs would provide a very minimal increase for those immediate funding needs. I disagree. For example, 1 Billion dollars is enough to subsidize our nation's libraries and schools to be Networked. Or how about paying off our nation's debts? The U.S. Treasury Department reports that our National Debt is approximately 5.8 trillion dollars, or more than $20,000 per citizen. NASA continues by saying that "diverting funds would be eliminating resources for one of the few federal agencies devoted to the future". They further claim that such a move could forfeit new solutions to our social and economic problems in favor of the limited means that we already know. NASA by its own words is searching for answers to our social and economic problems in outerspace, and using billions in resources in the process.
I.
What is space exploration?
The 2002 Encyclopædia Britannica defines Space exploration as investigation, by means of both manned and unmanned spacecraft, of the reaches of the universe beyond the atmosphere of the Earth.
The Columbia Electronic Encylopedia located at enyclopedia.com further describes space exporation as the investigation of physical conditions in space and on stars, planets, and their moons through the use of space probes, spacecraft, and artificial satellites.
Space probes and satellites, especially those which have been sent to Mars, have large failure rates. It would be impossible to discuss all the exploration missions which have been conducted into outerspace so I'll focus on just a few.
II.
NASA's Missions to Mars first started in 1962 with the developement of the Mariner 3 and 4 spacecraft. They were small robotic explorers each weighing less than half a ton. Their mission was to conduct flybys of Mars. Mariner 3 was launched in 1964, however, it failed early in its mission and never reached Mars. Three weeks later Mariner 4 was launched and after 8 months, flew by and took 21 pictures of the Red Planet. In 1969, the Mariner 6 and 7 spacecraft were both launched, and together took over 200 photos of Mars during their flybys. In 1971, the Mariner 8 and 9 orbiters were launched for Mars. Mariner 8 failed during launch, while Mariner 9 would reach and orbit Mars for almost one year returning over 7000 photos. So of the 6 Mariner missions to Mars, two were complete failures, while the others succeeded at taking numerous photographs.
In 1975, NASA followed up the Mariner project by launching the identical Viking 1 and 2 Orbiter/Lander spacecraft. They were launched approximately three weeks apart and both reached Mars. When the landers separated from the orbiters and touched down on Mars, it was the first time a spacecraft landed safely on the surface of another planet. The orbiters continued to encircle Mars for years taking thousands of pictures. The landers took pictures from the martian surface, as well as conducting some biology experiments. Sometime after the 1976 Viking Missions, scientists concluded that the soil on Mars could not sustain life due to its chemistry. They said that, "the findings of those experiments showed that Mars is self-sterilizing. That the combination of solar ultraviolet radiation that saturates the surface, the extreme dryness of the soil, and the oxidizing nature of the soil chemistry prevent the formation of living organisms in the Martian soil". Despite those facts, missions to Mars continued. NASA has even gone so far as to say that "While Earth is the only planet known to sustain life, surely the adaptive ability of humans would allow other planets and moons to become inhabited". After the Viking Missions, 3 of next 5 NASA missions to Mars failed. Will we have to fail at a manned mission to Mars before we learn our lesson?
In 1992, NASA launched the Mars Observer, a spacecraft designed after a commercial Earth-orbiting communications satellite. Less than one year later, communications with the Mars Observer failed before it entered Mars' orbit. The Mars Observer was completely lost and had a total price tag of 980 million dollars.
In November, 1996, a new spacecraft called the Mars Global Surveyor begin its flight towards Mars. After 10 months of travel, it began an elliptical orbit of Mars. After a 1.5 years of minor adjustments, the Global Surveyor's orbit became circular and it began its primary mission to map the surface of Mars. That mission was completed on January 31, 2001, and thus far collected more data on Mars than all other Mars missions combined. How much does it cost? The Surveyor mission cost 154 million to develop, 65 million for the Delta launch vehicle, and about 20 million per year for mission operations and science analysis, for a total 2001 price tag of about 319 million dollars.
In December, 1996, NASA sent a Lander and Rover to Mars called the Pathfinder. The Lander decended directly into Mars atmosphere using a parachute and a giant system of airbags to cushion its impact. Upon landing, the Rover, a 6-wheeled robotic vehicle powered by solar power, was dispatched to conduct experiments. One of which confirmed that the soil chemistry was similar to that of the Viking 1 and 2 landing sites, and could not support life. The Lander and Rover altogether took over 17,000 images of Mars' surface. The Pathfinder was developed within a budget of 150 million dollars.
In December 1998, NASA launched the Mars Climate Orbiter. It's main function was to be an interplanetary weather satellite and a communications relay for the Mars Polar Lander. It also carried two science instruments which included one that was lost on Mars Observer spacecraft in 1993, as well as a new array of wide and medium angle cameras. The Mars Climate Orbiter was lost upon arrival to Mars on September 23, 1999. Engineers believe the spacecraft probably entered the planet's atmosphere too low and burned up. Anyone have cash to burn?
In January, 1999, NASA sent another mission toward Mars. This one would be called the Mars Polar Lander/Deep Space 2 project. The Polar Lander was to land on the edge of the south polar cap of Mars and dig for water ice. Deep Space 2 consisted of two small probes which were to test new technologies on the Martian surface. The Mars Polar Lander and Deep Space 2 failed upon arrival to Mars on December 3, 1999.
Dave Williams, who works at NASA, says that the cost of the Mars Climate Orbiter and Polar Lander missions was 193 million to develop, 92 million to launch, and 43 million to operate, for a total price of 328 million dollars. All of which went up in smoke.
III.
What does the future hold? Missions to Mars are still being planned, however, two future projects called the Mars Lander and Rover 2001 have already been cancelled. Of course there are many other projects which don't deal with Mars. For example, Katy Human, who writes for the Rocky Mountain News of Colorado, reports that development of a spacecraft to travel to Pluto is underway with first year costs of 30 million dollars.
CONCLUSION
In 1976, Patrick Moore writes "Sending astronauts to Mars would be fantastically costly, and the planners will have to weigh up the pros and cons: what could a manned expedition achieve over and above what we can glean from automatic probes? Scientifically the returns would be great, but there is a limit to the amount of money which can be spent in securing a few samples of Martian dust, and the detractors would have a much better case than they had when trying to belittle the advantages of sending men to the Moon.".
Based on experiments by scientists, it is their best guess that life does not and could not exist on Mars, yet space exploration projects to the Red Planet continue. Why? NASA says that "Space allows us to expand and succeed". While I believe this kind of space exploration is a diversion from real issues effecting most people. Are the social and economic problems we have on Earth going to be resolved as a result of space exploration to include missions to Mars? Consider the diseases, pollution, wars, famine, and poverty in the world. Solutions to those problems will not be found by ignoring this planet for another. NASA swears that all mankind benefits from these missions. "Why Do We Explore Space?", NASA says, "That while many resources are spent on what seems a small return, the exploration of space allows the creative, the brave, the intelligent of our species to focus on what may save us from extinction from asteroids or comets". Maybe we should ask the question who is really benefiting from space exploration? Unless you are a scientist in the field or otherwise employed by NASA, these types of missions would likely not benefit anyone in this room, or most of the population for that matter. Only a priviledged and select few.
Sources of Information:
Dave Williams, NASA
Moore, Patrick. The Next Fifty Years In Space
Yenne, Bill. The Encyclopedia of US Spacecraft
NASA. NASA 1958-1983 Remembered Images
Lee, Wayne. To Rise From Earth
http://www.nasa.gov
http://www.nandotimes.com/healthscience/story/183620p-1776715c.html
http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpdodt.htm
http://www.britannica.com
http://www.encyclopedia.com/articles/12149.html
The Bush administration issued a report card grading the effectiveness of various NASA groups. Predictably, those involving human flight fared poorly. So-called Outer Planet programs were given failing marks as well. Citing swelling budgets and launch delays, the Bush budget would scrap all future funds for proposed missions to Europa, a large Jupiter moon that some speculate harbors life, and to Pluto, the only planet that remains unvisited by a probe.