Humans upon Mars

Paper Summary:

It is difficult for many Americans to believe that sending human beings into space via the national space program is such an important effort today. This is partly in the light of a reconfigured geopolitical balance between Russia and America, and partly due to the increased costs and perceived risks of the space program. This paper argues these doubts are correct. For although it may become technically possible for humans to travel to Mars, the paper argues that human travel to Mars should not be the primary goal of the American space program.

From the Paper:

"For NASA, Mars remains an important long-term goal and a way of establishing political capital in Washington D.C. during a time where even necessary, earthly social services programs are finanically strapped, given the war on terrorism at home, and the reconstruction of Iraq abroad. Its official literature directed towards the public promotes Mars exploration, in the form of the Mars Rover and also in terms of the potential for "making the vision a reality" of manning a spacecraft to the Red Planet. But although refreshing in the breadth of its vision and the beauty of its prose, NASA remains cagey about the financial realities this mission would cost the United States, and working out the details of negotiating a truce or a peace pact regarding finances between the United States and Russia over such a mission. (NASA Official Website, 2005)"

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