  More thoughts on Mars At the Democratic debate last night, the question came up about George Bush's soon to be announced proposal to have NASA focus on returning to the moon and Mars. Several of the candidates seemed skeptical, saying that NASA has existing commitments like the Space Station that need to be seen through. As much as I would like to see humans go to Mars in my lifetime, I'm not so sure we are ready for that as a nation or as a planet.
Mars is a long way. Any mission to Mars is an over two year round trip, and rescue missions are not possible outside a narrow launch window. No foreseeable means of propulsion is going to change that for at least another century. This means several things. It means that any human crew is going to be on its own once it leaves Earth orbit. It also means that the mission cannot carry all the oxygen, water, or food needed in a prepackaged form, but will be able to carry only a fraction of what it needs and recycle the rest in a closed loop life support system. Such systems can be fragile, and the breakdown of any part of it would mean the slow death of the crew. Other risks such as radiation from cosmic rays and solar flares remain. All these risks are present both in transit to Mars and on the surface of the planet. Is a society that increasingly values security and safety, which is willing to eagerly give up its freedoms out of fear of suicide bombers, going to be able to stay the course and risk trillions of dollars to send crew after crew to Mars only to have half of the people sent die in the process?
I'm not so sure. I'm not sure that national pride or even science are worth such a cost. Perhaps the only goal worth it would be establishing a sustainable branch of human civilization on Mars, one that could survive even in the event of some cataclysm on Earth.
But again, will a society that is increasingly focused on self gratification be able to summon the pluck and the resources for goals that could only benefit generations far in the future? Again I'm not so sure. It seems that the kind of long range, open thinking required to create a sustainable civilization on Mars could also be applied on Earth, improving life right here and now. Once that is well underway the case for Mars will both be more compelling and more likely to be well recieved. 
