FREE ESSAY ON MARS

MARS

In 1962, the United States President, John F. Kennedy, spoke at Rice University in
Houston, Texas. Kennedy promised to put an American on the moon by the end of the 1960's.
(The History) On June 16, 1969 Kennedy's dream promise was kept. The United States placed
two men on the surface of the moon. (Apollo 11) 
By the year 2001, a few months short of 32 years later, no other body has had humans as
guests. Why not?
The vast wealth of knowledge which could be gained by a manned exploration of Mars is
probably one of the better reasons to go. By further exploration of Mars the field of
Comparative Planetology could be expanded. One of the procedures which could be performed
my explorers sent to Mars is drilling samples out of the Martian ice caps. This process
is done on Earth in order to get a climatic history. This information would be extremely
useful when looking at Mars. We would finally know why the water which once rushed over
Mars and created the great cannels of Mars have become frozen. Other important
information which could be found on Mars deals with the vulcanism. We could more easily
study to see when and why vulcanism ceased on Mars. (Collins 84)
Opponents argue that this would just be all too costly. They claim that the money could
not be found for such a venture.(Easterbrook 91)
Well In answer to the money problem one comes to a totally new point, the economy. This
spending of money would not break the United States government, it would stimulate the
United States Industrial fields. The money spent on a Mars mission would not merely be
spent in space, it would be spent in the United States. All of the money spent here would
also push the United States industries to make better products. The companies would be
pushed to create such dependable products in fields such as aerospace and avionics. Of
course we would see the same effects seen after NASA's crowing achievement, putting
humans on the moon, after putting humans on Mars. These effects are the expansion of the
technologies used to reach into different fields. Such as medicine, many of the advances
in medicine since 1973 can be attributed to the space program. Mainly through the work
done in computers, electronics, thermal control, computational fluid dynamics and etc...
Robots have been the explorers of Mars. We have now seen that robots have become
ineffective. Such as the case with the Mars polar lander. A software problem caused
breaking systems to shut down early. (Mars Failures) By putting a human at the controls
such a software problem could be overridden. The use of such robotic probes are used to
learn as much as possible without actually sending humans. This should be the main focus
of the probes being sent. (National Space Society 61) We have learned from that mistake
also. 
Bibliography
"Apollo 11." Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2000. Microsoft 
Software.
Collins, Michael. "The US Should Explore Mars" Space Exploration: 
Opposing Viewpoints. Bender, Leone, and Cozic, Eds. San
Diego: Greenhaven Press 1992.
Easterbrook, Gregg "The US Should Not Explore Mars" Space 
Exploration: Opposing Viewpoints. Bender, Leone, and Cozic, 
Eds. San Diego: Greenhaven Press 1992.
"Mars Failures 'Down to Cash'." BBC News [online] Available: 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_693000/693
033.stm March 29, 2000
National Space Society "The US Must Pursue Manned Space 
Exploration" Space Exploration: Opposing Viewpoints. 
Bender, Leone, and Cozic, Eds. San Diego: Greenhaven 
Press 1992.
Roland, Alex "The US Must Not Pursue Manned Space Exploration" 
Space Exploration: Opposing Viewpoints. Bender, Leone, and 
Cozic, Eds. San Diego: Greenhaven Press 1992.
"The History Place- Great Speeches Collection." History Place 
[online] Available: http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/jfk-
space.htm December 12, 2000.