The human race, for all its intellect and ingenuity, is a race plagued with boredom and insatiable curiosity, something that has been both a blessing and a curse. Even though we have yet to fully explore our world, our eyes have long been on the Stars and what lies above us. Is there life out there in the night sky? Are there worlds with creatures who wonder, like ourselves, about the meaning of existence? Is the human race doomed to die on Earth or are we destined to life beyond it?
Although NASA has been drastically underfunded (for some stupid reason) they still are planning future missions to study the worlds around us, the ones close, from Mars to the moons of Jupiter, and the ones lightyears away; in the hopes of gaining sweet sweet knowledge, but also in the hopes of finding life and maybe even a new home for mankind.
And they are not the only ones. Both India and China are expanding their space programs, Europe has also stepped up their game. We are also seeing the rise of independent space programs from SpaceX to Blue Origin.
The Red Planet
Mars has been the subject of countless alien invasion films, television shows, and books such as H.G. Well's War of the Worlds in which Mars attacks Earth with horrific alien death machines. Steven Spielberg brought said death machines to life in 2005's War of the Worlds:
Luckily, the odds of being invaded by Mars are becoming less and less likely. NASA's rovers have yet to find any sign of intelligent life, but we shouldn't rule out the possibility of life entirely. NASA is planning on sending a new rover to Mars in the year 2020, a rover which will study the soil for any signs of ancient microbial life, study weather patterns, and possibly even help to prepare for future human exploration (fingers crossed).
Fore more information: http://mars.nasa.gov/programmissions/missions/future/mars2020/
ExoMars (a European Space Company working with Russia) recently launched an orbiter and lander to Mars in order to test the atmosphere for signs of life, primarily the methane. The majority of the methane of planet Earth (90%) comes from living beings. Methane is likely to have a 300 to 600 year life span in the Martian atmosphere before radiation destroys it, and if the methane is still there then the lifeforms that supplied it may be there too. But this is not a conclusion set in stone. The methane could have been created by other means or the microbic lifeforms that supplied it could be long gone.
For more information: http://www.space.com/32274-why-we-keep-going-to-mars-exomars-2016.html
I think that both the NASA and ExoMars missions will be instrumental in finding life on Mars, if it exists or ever did exist and the more we know the better prepared we will be for the day the human race sets foot on the Red Planet, even if that day is far in the future. Given its proximity and the resources that have already been poured into it (not to mention its candidacy for a future home for the human race) I believe NASA should make it its priority and that the United States government should as well.
If there are living organisms or the remains of the dead organisms on Mars they will be small. Very small microbes. If we do find them I believe that we should conduct tests to see if said organisms have any effect on us. Now it may be that they do not, that our biology is completely different, however the risk exists, however small, however unlikely, that there may be some kind of negative side effect and I believe that we must discover if that negative reaction exists before significant colonization of Mars can ever happen...you know, to avoid everyone dying.
Europa:
Orbiting the great Jupiter is the mysterious moon Europa. An icy moon with a red cracked surface, which has shown strong signs of a liquid ocean underneath, an ocean that could be teeming with extraterrestrial life. Because of this, Europa has long fascinated scientists. NASA wants to launch a mission (sometime around the 2020’s) to learn the truth, to delve into our solar system’s 2nd likeliest home for life, as there could be creatures small and large hiding beneath the icy moon's surface.
In my opinion Europa is our best shot at finding large life outside of Earth with our current technology. It will likely be aquatic in nature and could very well look like the things that crawl and swim at the bottoms of our own ocean...or maybe they'll look completely different. I believe that the current mission NASA is planning will be sufficient for discovering what lies beneath the moon’s surface.
I believe that it should be made more of a priority, second only to Mars, and that more funding should be given so that success can be guaranteed. Given that this mission does not involve landing on the moon itself, there is no threat to human life, which is always good. The answers we could find here could change everything which is why we must go. The more we know the better off we are, the stronger we are, and the more suited we are to advance.
I’m hoping that eventually NASA can send people to Europa, but not before we have a better idea of what’s on it.
Going to Europa+Knowing What’s on Europa=Good
Going to Europa+Not Knowing What’s on Europa=Disaster
Beyond Our Solar System:
Keplar 186f
When searching for planets that either harbor, or have the potential to harbor, life NASA often looks for planets in the “habitable zone”, being the right distance away from a star to support liquid water. Working with what they know of Earth, NASA tries to find planets that share Earth’s qualities and they have done just that with Keplar-186f.
For more information: http://www.nasa.gov/ames/kepler/nasas-kepler-discovers-first-earth-size-planet-in-the-habitable-zone-of-another-star
IN CONCLUSION
I believe fully that intelligent life likely does not exist in our solar system, at least not of the kind that we possess. I do believe that it exists elsewhere but we do not have the technology to discover it yet, although we may very well do it by accident.
I think that the human race and its continued expansion (the United Nations has us hitting 9.7 billion by 2050) should be the primary goal and that Mars should be treated as our next planet (or maybe we go the moon and then Mars). We have a lot to learn, and I think that allowing NASA to explore the Red Planet will give us that knowledge and if it's not safe then we need to know now and not when it's too late to find an alternative.
Europa is interesting because it can help us understand more about life in the Universe and how it comes to be and that knowledge is infinity helpful which is why we need to let NASA see what is going on.
And if NASA continues to explore and receive funding then eventually it will be able to traverse outside of this solar system and we will find intelligence outside of Earth, hopefully of the friendly variety.
No comments:
Post a Comment