Mars 2020: Scouting for Sustainability

Although space travel to Mars has been splashed across the news for the last couple of years, the expectations and reality of a renewed space program and private funding for prolonged travel to the Red Planet is fundamentally unsustainable in the long run. NASA's upcoming Mars 2020 expedition is planned to put down a more advanced rover to take additional measurements, investigate key questions about the habitability of Mars, and assess natural resources and hazards in preparation for future human expeditions.

But here's the gist. With NASA funding being slashed by the government, the dissolution of the Shuttle program which allowed for up to 7 individuals being taken into space, and the sheer costs of space travel, even if Mars does become a possibility in the near or even near-ish future, travel with be restricted to those who can afford it, which carries overt tones from the Pixar film, Walle.

Walle (2009)

Walle (2009)

Current space "tourism" starts off with a $250,000 dollar pricetag, and that's only to get into subliminal orbit, let alone the Moon or even Mars. Space travel, whether we like it or not, becomes a class issue, with rumblings of the "survival of the fittest" and the ethical questions of who are left behind in the event of a compete and planetary disaster.

Even with the discovery of the "earth-planet" Kepler 452b, we know barely any information regarding the planet or if life is actually sustainable there. Since the beginning of time, humans have been obsessed with the tracking of the stars, the meaning of celestial signs, and more recently, the imperialist race to get any form of life into orbit, let alone deeper space.

Aliens have their own unique place in pop culture and have been used as Cold War hysteria, fostered by the CIA.

This being said, I would label myself a realist. Space travel is not hovering over the next horizon. Flying cars are not the reality that was predicted to us in the 1970s. We don't even have a cure for cancer. Although the pull of "up" has always tugged at the heartstrings of those privileged enough to make the journey, we need to collectively take charge of protecting our own planet and the state of our own animals and organisms before we divert any more taxpayer money to celestial travel.

And for those who signed up the for future Mars expedition, I hope you have a hefty life insurance policy, because projections run by MIT have stated that the first Mars One colonists will suffocate, starve, and be incinerated.

Read about that here: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/191862-the-first-mars-one-colonists-will-suffocate-starve-and-be-incinerated-according-to-mit