Planetary Society: Take action or Mars will slip away

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Act now or lose Mars.

 

That’s the June 7 message from the Planetary Society. The paper, titled “Mars in Retrograde,” raises concern that the U.S. timeline for putting a human on Mars by the 2030s will be undermined by lack of funding and challenges in U.S. leadership (cough, cough Republicans! cough, cough). They say there is simply “not much of a Mars program.”

 

Anyway, the Planetary Society points out what they think needs to be done in the paper.

 

The nation has reached a critical decision point regarding the Mars Exploration Program. We believe there are two reasonable pathways for the future of U.S. robotic exploration of Mars:

 

• Invest modest capital beginning in FY 2018 to maintain the scientific and technical capabilities that have taken decades to acquire while advancing the technological and surveying knowledge necessary for human exploration

Maintain a minimal program that collects and prepares samples of Mars with the hope that, at some future date, another nation or entity will return them

 

The Planetary Society believes the first pathway is the correct choice for the nation and our international partners. In an effort to help NASA achieve these goals, The Planetary Society makes three recommendations:

 

NASA should immediately commit to a Mars telecommunications and high-resolution imaging orbiter to replace rapidly aging assets currently at Mars.

NASA should begin formulation of a sample retrieval rover and Mars Ascent Vehicle mission to continue the overall Mars Sample Return campaign.

NASA should formulate a follow-on strategy to the Robotic Mars Exploration Strategy, 2007-2016 document.

 

WHY MARS?

 

So why is going to Mars important?

 

Well first, we will expand our scientific knowledge. We can learn more about “what went wrong on Mars” and “was there ever life on Mars?”

 

Also, the technology developed to get to Mars will have benefits outside of the space mission. We already benefit from past space programs in our every day lives with items like enriched baby food, chemical detectors, anti-icing chemicals and much, much more.

 

Will the paper have an impact? Probably not. The political landscape is aimed more at short-term social movement (forward or backwards) and economic concerns at the moment. With all its current drama, it seems as if getting into another country will be a problem for Americans, let alone getting to Mars.

 

The Planetary Society is a non-governmental, nonprofit foundation involved in research, public outreach, and political advocacy for engineering projects related to astronomy, planetary science, and space exploration. It’s CEO is celebrity scientist Bill Nye.

 

From, well, my blog: https://zoombubba.com/blog/2017/06/07/planetary-society-mars-is-slipping-away/