When we put a man on the moon, it was a spectacle of human achievement. A circus of human ingenuity. An echo still felt to this day. It mirrored our own sense of wonder at the universe, which we previously could only chase in our imagination. Dreams of being an astronaut sprung up overnight as children laid in their beds overwhelmed by the enormity of space. How far can we go? What will we discover? Another habitable planet? Another life form?
How many times have you heard “We’ve put a man on the moon but we can’t…?" The quest to replace it with “We’ve put a man on Mars but we can’t…” has been a slow crawl to the finish line. We have a rover named Curiosity on the surface that sings happy birthday to itself every year. It has sung that song three times now. It even takes selfies that NASA calls self-portraits. We are still years from the days of man walking on Mars. But the question is, when it happens, will be as monumental as the moon landing?
NASA is planning to put a man on Mars in 2037. Other nations have expressed desire, even cooperation, with achieving the same goal but have not set a date. All estimates from experts say 2030s is when we will be at the cusp of achieving this dream and no sooner. Any attempts to bring samples from Mars back to earth have failed. If we can’t get space dirt back home, what hopes do we have for a human being?
Getting to Mars is exponentially more difficult than the moon. Roughly two-thirds of all spacecrafts destined for Mars have failed. The moon is 239 thousand miles away. Mars is 249 million miles away. It’s going to take, at least, 500 billion dollars just to get there. The funding is the biggest problem and with space agencies around the world still feeling the effects of the recession, it will have to take a successful mission that pushes the boundaries of what we thought we could do to enhance interest in space exploration again.
Critics argue that there is very little practical use to landing on Mars, let alone the moon. Come on, we went to the moon to say we did it and to taunt the Russians with our superiority. Once another nation starts getting closer to Mars than we are, we will catch the same fever we had before with the moon. Americans hate being second place. As of right now, for the average Joe, landing on Mars offers no practical use in everyday life and that’s why interest is so limited in the general population.
Other experts say landing on Mars is crucial to human survival. Once we land on Mars, we will need to start colonizing it and making it as habitable as possible in case of an ultimate disaster here on Earth. Trying to find life on Mars, or the ruins of potential past life, will reveal more secrets of alien life than any science fiction could.
But the question that is on my mind is when we do land on Mars in 2037, will it be as amazing as the moon landing?
We have to take into perspective that it will be 68 years after the moon landing, meaning several generations of people missed the moon landing and have only heard stories of it. Landing on Mars will be our own personal memory to hold on to and cherish for the rest of our lives. We will remember where we were when it happened. For the people who will be alive in 2037, the Mars landing will be more important than the moon landing, but that will be due to personal preference, not practical sense.
The answer lies in the generations who will miss the Mars landing. Without their personal bias affecting their decision making, will they say the moon landing was more important or the Mars landing?
The one aspect of the moon landing that the Mars landing will not achieve is the fact that we could officially declare we were better than the Russians. The evil Russians who we thought conspired to take over the world were officially inferior to us and therefore less of a threat. The moon landing is almost more important to history than it is to science thanks to the Cold War. However, with China climbing the ropes and catching up to us, who knows - maybe we will have a good reason to go to Mars, and that’s to say we’re better than the Chinese.
In my opinion, the moon landing will be more important than the Mars landing. Try to remember when Wi-Fi didn’t exist, when cell phones didn’t exist, when you didn’t have a computer in your pocket. Imagine whatever you’re reading this on did not exist. Take yourself back to a time in 1969 when all phones had a cord on them. To think with all that lack of technology, we still put a man on the moon. That tremendous margin of difference between normalcy and science fiction crashed into one reality on that fateful evening.When we land on Mars, our technology at home will be insanely advanced and our perspective will be diluted because of it. Not to say we won’t be amazed. It just won’t be as mind-blowing as it was before.
