There was a time in this country when space exploration – and all of the possibilities it brought with it – were really all people could talk about. All throughout the 1960s, people believed in the idea that it wasn’t just possible for men to set foot on the moon – it was important. That all came to a head in July of 1969, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first astronauts to ever walk on the moon.
In the years since, however, organizations like NASA have definitely taken something of a back seat in the public consciousness. Although it’s true that the Space Shuttle program remained a major fixture in the United States from the early 1970s on, it officially wound down in 2011. Yet at the same time, a number of recent studies have indicated that the majority of Americans still believe that it is critically important that the United States remain a global leader in terms of space exploration. A massive eight out of every ten people who responded to one survey said that the International Space Station (ISS) has been a good investment in the country, and 65% of respondents said that NASA should still “play a vital role in the exploration of space.”
All of this continues to play out in the public’s fascination with NASA’s recent series of missions to Mars. This was evidenced during February of 2021, when the Mars 2020 mission arrived on the surface of our celestial neighbor. On April 19, 2021, the first rotocraft flight on Mars was achieved after having been deployed from the Perseverance rover. Just a few days later on April 25, 2021, the Mars rotocraft completed a flight that took it farther and faster than ever. It went roughly the length of a football field during this, its third trip across the surface. It hit a top speed of 4.5 miles per hour in a flight that eventually lasted just one minute and 20 seconds.
With all of this in mind, someone can’t help but ask the question:
“… why should anyone care about any of this?” Why should a kid living in the inner city care about what is going on so many thousands of miles away in a far-off place they’ll probably never visit? Thankfully, the answer is simple:
Once again, it’s the possibility of it all.
President John F. Kennedy once said about the moon missions during the 1960s that they were not something to do because they were easy, but because they were hard. By bringing our nation together to back a single, scientific-driven purpose, we could show the world exactly what Americans are capable of accomplishing when we really put our minds to something. We could show them that we will not stop until we succeed and even in the face of total adversity, we’ll never give up because that’s not in our way.
NASA’s missions to Mars are really no different from that basic idea.
Think for a moment about what we’ve already learned about Mars from all of the various missions that have taken place up to that point. We’ve learned that it may have once been capable of hosting a wide range of different ecosystems. We’ve learned that it may still house microbial life today. We know that at some point during its history, the surface of the planet underwent an incredible transformation. What was once likely mighty, flowing rivers have long since transformed into vast, uninhabited deserts.
So what happened, when did it happen and what direction may the planet be headed in next? That’s exactly what we aim to find out. But one of the most important things about all of this to understand is that the lessons we’ve learning on Mars can help fundamentally alter life on our own planet, too. The more we learn about Mars, the more likely we’ll be to successfully set up a human colony there at some point over the next few decades – which is really what all of this is about.
In the not-too-distant future, scientists will be able to confirm whether or not Mars ever hosted life. Based on that development, we’ll know if there’s a future for our own species on Mars. So why should an inner-city kid care about what is happening in outer space right now? Because he or she may very well end up there one day.
Right now, NASA insists that we’ll be able to send humans to Mars – and safely get them back again – at some point during the 2030s. As you read this, development work is hard underway on Orion – essentially a giant “ferry” that will take explorers first to the moon, and then to Mars beyond.
Even private spaceflight companies like SpaceX are showing interest in our intergalactic neighbors. Elon Musk, that organization’s CEO, has said that if humanity is going to survive the effects of climate change and other major issues, we need to become a “multi-planetary species” – and sooner rather than later. If things go the way people are predicting, there could be a million people or more on Mars between now and 2100.
So why is it important for that inner-city kid to care about what’s going on? Because he or she needs to start getting ready and even the brilliant scientists at NASA are going to need all the help they can get.