Mission for America: Trip to Mars 2018

"Daybreak at Gale Crater." http://www.nasa.gov/

Space exploration has always fascinated me, it can produce great technologies and possibly be the answers to our human origins. CNN did a story on a planned trip to Mars. The specifics of the details are not released yet, just an over view of what should happen. This was all announced January of this year and has shocked some of the public being that the NASA program has stopped being funded by the US government by the Obama administration. This is one of the first missions going into planning since then. The thing is that the mission isn't being planned by NASA, but by a single man.

"Dennis Tito in 2001". http://www.deccanchronicle.com/

The man who is funding this mission has claim to the title as the first private space traveler. Millionaire Dennis Tito spent 20 million dollars to travel to the International Space Station in 2001. Dennis is quite learned when it comes to space. He used to work for a NASA program in the 60's developing jet propulsion systems to be used in the orbit of mars.

When I first heard of Obama cutting NASA funds I was scared for technology's sake. Manny/most of the technical shizzle wizzle we take for granite today has been developed by NASA. At first I thought that progress would be hindered. When I read this article I realized that may not be completely true. Space exploration being in the public market may not be a hindrance, it may just help boost progress.

"Mars surface taken by Curiosity." http://www.nasa.gov/

When companies are doing the research in space there is more risk and reward. Lets say that a group of people are headed to outer space. The company is responsible for those people. Our US history has showed us that the government has not always been the best at claiming responsibility for mistakes. This should may reverberate into faster, cheaper, safer, and better designs. Companies may be more money conscious when compared to the government. I am sure that NASA employees are some of the worlds smartest engineers, but was about the ones that aren't as book smart but may have idea and skills that are not thought in books. This would create a different view point when a mission or product is on the drawing board. Once last point that could be made is the competition factor. This will inspire marketing  which in turn could actually get engineers out of the lab and into the public's eye. They could then show what is being researched and how the newest technologies could affect the individual.

Mission for America is meant to take flight in 2018, a mere 5 years from its first announcement. This may seem like a short time frame but Eugene Cernan, who was the last man to walk on Earth's moon, seems to think a mission like this one is long overdue. Cernan explains in his interview with CNN that he thought that mars would be old news by now. He goes as far as to say that we should be inhabiting Mars and the first native born Marsions should be high schoolers by now.

Is this true? Should we already be on mars? If so, what has hindered the coarse? It could be that we are just not advanced enough to travle there or that there has not been enough interest to go there, or maybe that the Government has hindered human movement to mars. Motivation from the private sector may just be the catalyst needed to delve deeper into the great unknown. This would open up even more jobs in engineering.

Engineers should be able to appreciate the idea of the new frontier being a public playground. There is no doubt that the funding will be available to new innovative technical shizzle wizzle. The proof is is shown by how much one man, Denis Tito, is willing to pay for space flight. The amount of funding from a corporation could be outstanding. It could be compared to the auto industry. Engineers are very, very tied into the auto industry from the beginning of the last century; I don't see it being much different from that. Engineers will be developing safe and cheap public space flights.





Source Links:
CNN report
Interview of Eugene Cernan