| Infinity and Beyond |
19 January 2004
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Bush Announces Space Vision Thing
When the Elder President Bush announced that the US should commit itself to sending men to Mars, few noticed, cared or remembered. Not surprisingly, then, when George Bush the Lesser decided to make the same announcement, it was hyped to the point of being the worst kept secret in Washington. He may have blathered on about distant adventures in the far future, but a little robot already on Mars was sending back more data than any astronaut could collect.
Mr. Bush's policy statement was long on optimism (he's very good at that, by the way) and short on practicalities. The laws of physics say that sending men to Mars is possible, but the laws of biology say getting them there alive and returning them again may not be. Can the human body cope with the radiation of space for months on end followed by weeks and months on Mars, followed by a similarly difficult trip back?
Meanwhile, NASA's success with its Mars rover "Spirit", a science lab on a golf cart, is doing as much exploring as is possible. In a space suit, an astronaut has no sense of feel, smell or taste. In the thin Martian atmosphere, hearing through the dome of the suit would be nigh impossible. That leaves vision; which can be provided by camera, as Spirit is doing. At $820 million, Spirit and its sister rover Opportunity may appear pricey, but a Los Angeles class submarine comes in at around $900 million plus $21 million a year to run. The Shuttle and the International Space Station have cost billions, and the research from those is marginal at best. This is not just the opinion of internet journalists but also of scientists like Van Allen and Bob Park.
Meanwhile, Britain's Beagle 2 has reminded mankind of the unpleasant truth about Mars. Its far away and dangerous. The survival rate of Earth's probes there is one in three. The odds just don't justify humans yet.
More practical is a permanent moon base. It's close enough that rescue missions are viable, and the construction would not be hard since mankind has learned to live in the Antarctic winter. And some real science would be possible instead of micro-gravity monkeyshines.
That said, the human spirit is a wandering one. Even the most settled city dweller is only a few centuries removed from a nomadic lifestyle. Human curiosity is, perhaps, mankind's one saving grace. Someday, a Terran man or woman must take a walk on Mars. It will be impractical, it will be dangerous, it may even be reckless. It will also be a very human thing to do.
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