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MAKING A MAR MISSION THE GOAL OF THE UNITED STATES WOULD HAVE EXTRAORDINARY BENEFITS TO SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE-Zubrin '03



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MAKING A MAR MISSION THE GOAL OF THE UNITED STATES WOULD HAVE EXTRAORDINARY BENEFITS TO SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE-Zubrin '03

[Robert; President of the Mars Society; Mission to Mars: The Red Planet beckons, says The Mars Society's ROBERT ZUBRIN. Now is no time for Canada to drop out of a project that may be humanity's greatest challenge; Globe & Mail; 23 August 2003; Page A19]


The challenge of a humans-to-Mars program would also be an invitation to adventure for every youth in every country participating. It would send out the clarion call: "Learn your science and you can become part of pioneering a new world." There will be more than 100 million students in North American schools over the next 10 years. If a Mars program were to inspire just an extra 1 per cent of them to pursue scientific educations, the net result would be one million more scientists, engineers, inventors, medical researchers and doctors, making technological innovations that create industries, inspire medical cures, strengthen national defence, advance the human condition, and generally increase national income to an extent that utterly dwarfs the expenditures of the Mars program.
SPACE EXPLORATION CHALLENGES THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY AND PRODUCES MANY TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES-The Australian '04

[Dubya takes us to infinity and beyond; The Australian; 16 January 2004; page 10]


``We choose to explore space because doing so improves our lives and lifts our national spirit,'' said Bush, while JFK wanted moon missions ``not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organise and measure the best of our energies and skills.'' There also happen to be a lot of space votes in the big electoral states of Florida and Texas, home of rockets and mission controls. But taking out the politics, Mr Bush is still on the right track, as was Kennedy. By setting the bar high, space exploration has challenged the scientific community and produced technology used in a wide variety of applications from aerospace to communications to medicine. The space shuttle is creaking, the international space station has limitations.
EXPLORATION OF MARS STIMULATES STUDY OF THE HUMAN BODY-Rampelotto ‘11

[Pabulo Henrique, Department of Biology, Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM), Brazil; Why Send Humans to Mars? Looking Beyond Science; The Journal of Cosmology, 2011, http://journalofcosmology.com/Mars151.html; retrieved 29 July 2011]


The study of human physiology in the Martian environment will provide unique insights into whole-body physiology, and in areas as bone physiology, neurovestibular and cardiovascular function. These areas are important for understanding various terrestrial disease processes (e.g. osteoporosis, muscle atrophy, cardiac impairment, and balance and co-ordination defects). Moreover, medical studies in the Martian environment associated with researches in space medicine will provide a stimulus for the development of innovative medical technology, much of which will be directly applicable to terrestrial medicine. In fact, several medical products already developed are space spin-offs including surgically implantable heart pacemaker, implantable heart defibrillator, kidney dialysis machines, CAT scans, radiation therapy for the treatment of cancer, among many others. Undoubtedly, all these space spin-offs significantly improved the human`s quality of life.

ADVANTAGE: MARS MINING/EARTH RESOURCE MANAGEMENT


MARS HAS SIGNIFICANT MINING RESOURCES MAKING IT AN IDEAL GOAL-Zubrin '09

[Robert; President of the Mars Society; The moon–mars initiative: Making the vision real; Futures; October 2009; page 541]


But the most important reason to go to Mars is the doorway it opens for the future. Uniquely among the extraterrestrial bodies of the inner solar system, Mars is endowed with all the resources needed to support not only life but the development of a technological civilization. In contrast to the comparative desert of the Earth's Moon, Mars possesses oceans of water frozen into its soil as permafrost, as well as vast quantities of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen, all in forms readily accessible to those clever enough to use them. These four elements are the basic stuff not only of food and water, but of plastics, wood, paper, clothing, and most importantly, rocket fuel.
MARS MAY HOLD UNIMAGINED RICHES AND RESOURCES FOR FUTURE HUMANITY-Zubrin '96

[Robert; President of the Mars Society; Mars on a shoestring; November/December 1996; page 20]


The planet Mars is a world of spectacular mountains three times as tall as Mount Everest, canyons three times as deep and five times as long as the Grand Canyon, vast ice fields, and thousands of kilometers of mysterious dry riverbeds. The planet's unexplored surface may hold unimagined riches and resources for future humanity, as well as answers to some of the deepest philosophical questions that thinking men and women have pondered for millennia.
MARS RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT WOULD HELP EARTH-BOUND MANAGEMENT OF RESOURCES-Rampelotto ‘11

[Pabulo Henrique, Department of Biology, Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM), Brazil; Why Send Humans to Mars? Looking Beyond Science; The Journal of Cosmology, 2011, http://journalofcosmology.com/Mars151.html; retrieved 29 July 2011]


The permanence of humans in a hostile environment like on Mars will require careful use of local resources. This necessity might stimulate the development of novel methods and technologies in energy extraction and usage that could benefit terrestrial exploitation and thus improve the management of and prolong the existence of resources on Earth.
MARS INCLUDES SIGNIFICANT NATURAL RESOURCES WITH EXPORT POTENTIAL-Silber ‘97

[Kenneth; Mining the Sky: Untold Riches from the Asteroids, Comets, and Planets; Reason Magazine; April 1997; http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1568/is_n11_v28/ai_19280035/; retrieved 29 July 2011]


Mars will need a thriving export sector to pay for its imports of manufactured goods from Earth. (Even with a high degree of automation, Martian society's labor shortage ensures that imports will be necessary far into the future. Furthermore, such trade will be desirable, given the rule of comparative advantage.) Fortunately, Mars contains a plenitude of natural resources with export potential. Deuterium, a fuel useful for today's nuclear-power industry and essential for future nuclear-fusion reactors, is a particularly promising candidate for interplanetary commerce.

ADVANTAGE: COLONIZATION
MARS OFFERS THE GREATEST OPPORTUNITY FOR SETTLEMENT-Zubrin '09

[Robert; President of the Mars Society; The moon–mars initiative: Making the vision real; Futures; October 2009; page 541]


In addition, Mars has experienced the same sorts of volcanic and hydrologic processes that produced a multitude of mineral ores on Earth. Virtually every element of significant interest to industry is known to exist on the Red Planet. While no liquid water exists on the surface, below ground is a different matter, and there is every reason to believe that geothermal heat sources could be maintaining hot liquid reservoirs beneath the Martian surface today. Such hydrothermal reservoirs may be refuges in which survivors of ancient Martian life continue to persist; they would also represent oases providing abundant water supplies and geothermal power to future human settlers. With its 24-h day-night cycle and an atmosphere thick enough to shield its surface against solar flares, Mars is the only extraterrestrial planet that will readily allow large scale greenhouses lit by natural sunlight. Mars can be settled. For our generation and many that will follow, Mars is the New World. In establishing our first foothold on Mars, we will begin humanity's career as a multi-planet species.

Mars is where the science is, Mars is where the challenge is, and Mars is where the future is. That's why Mars must be our goal.


MARS DIRECT LEADS TO AN EASY PATH OF HABITATION-Zubrin '99

[Robert; President of the Mars Society; Sending Humans to Mars; Scientific American Presents; 1999; page 46]


Because no one will be left in orbit, the crew will benefit from the natural gravity and protection against radiation offered by the Martian environment. As a result, there is no need for a quick return to Earth, a complication that has plagued conventional mission plans that consist of an orbiting mother ship and small landing parties sent to the surface. At the conclusion of their stay, the Mars astronauts will return by direct flight in the ERV. As the series of missions progresses, a string of small bases will be left behind on the planet, opening broad stretches of Mars to continued human exploration and, eventually, habitation.
DESIGN INNOVATIONS MAKE A MARS OUTPOST LESS EXPENSIVE THAN OUR INVESTMENT IN A LOW-ORBIT SPACE STATION-Portree '97

[David S.F.; The new Martian chronicles; Astronomy; August 1997; page 32]


A permanent outpost on Mars sounds like a big-ticket item, but Joosten says that NASA is working hard to lower the costs of piloted Mars exploration. He believes that design innovations will eventually allow NASA to establish and expand a Mars outpost for about $2 billion a year--similar to what's being spent now to build a space station in low-Earth orbit.
ONLY MARS HAS CONDITIONS IN SPACE FOR COLONIZATION-Zubrin ‘94

[Robert; President of the Mars Society; The Economic Viability of Mars Colonization; 1994; http://www.aleph.se/Trans/Tech/Space/mars.html; retrieved 28 July 2011]


The primary analogy to be drawn is that Mars is to the new age of exploration as North America was to the last. The Earth's Moon, close to the metropolitan planet but impoverished in resources compares to Greenland. Other destinations, such as the Main Belt asteroids may be richer in potential future exports to Earth but lack the preconditions for the creation of a fully developed indigenous society; these compare to the West Indies. Only Mars has the full set of resources required to develop a native civilization, only Mars is a viable target for true colonization. Like America in its relationship to Britain and the West Indies, Mars has a positional advantage that will allow it to participate in a useful way to support extractive activities on behalf of Earth in the asteroid belt and elsewhere.
ADVANTAGE: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
MISSION TO MARS WILL STIMULATE THE GLOBAL INDUSTRIAL MACHINE AND TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT-Rampelotto ‘11

[Pabulo Henrique, Department of Biology, Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM), Brazil; Why Send Humans to Mars? Looking Beyond Science; The Journal of Cosmology, 2011, http://journalofcosmology.com/Mars151.html; retrieved 29 July 2011]


In the last decade, the human exploration of Mars has been a topic of intense debate. Much of the focus of this debate lies on scientific reasons for sending, or not sending, humans to Mars. However, the more profound questions regarding why our natural and financial resources should be spent on such endeavor have not been addressed in a significant way. To be successful, the human exploration of Mars needs reasons beyond science to convince the public. People are far more interested in the short-term outcome of exploration than any nebulous long-term benefits. Finding the right balance of science and other factors is critical to convince taxpayers to part with $100 billion or more of their money over the next couple of decades to fund such endeavor. In the following, I briefly explain why the colonization of Mars will bring benefits for humans on Earth, looking beyond scientific reasons.

The engineering challenges necessary to accomplish the human exploration of Mars will stimulate the global industrial machine and the human mind to think innovatively and continue to operate on the edge of technological possibility. Numerous technological spin-offs will be generated during such a project, and it will require the reduction or elimination of boundaries to collaboration among the scientific community. Exploration will also foster the incredible ingenuity necessary to develop technologies required to accomplish something so vast in scope and complexity. The benefits from this endeavor are by nature unknown at this time, but evidence of the benefits from space ventures undertaken thus far point to drastic improvement to daily life and potential benefits to humanity as whole.

One example could come from the development of water recycling technologies designed to sustain a closed-loop life support system of several people for months or even years at a time (necessary if a human mission to Mars is attempted). This technology could then be applied to drought sufferers across the world or remote settlements that exist far from the safety net of mainstream society.
RETURN ON INVESTMENT ON A MARS TRIP WOULD BE TEN TO ONE-McLane ‘10

[James C.; Associate Fellow in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; The Space Review; 1 June 2010; http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1635/1; retrieved 25 July 2011]


Rather than some fanciful and inaccurate speculation on what a tiny Mars outpost might cost, we should consider just what the country ought to be willing to spend. Forty years ago, at its peak, the US dedicated close to 1% of its Gross National Product (GNP) to the Apollo Moon landing. This was deemed affordable, in spite of the need to simultaneously fund an expensive war in Vietnam and massive new government welfare programs. In recent years the percent of our GNP that is devoted to space exploration is down in the range of one-quarter of one percent. America should easily be able to devote perhaps half a percent of its GNP each year—that’s just half the cost of Apollo, in a decade-long effort that would provide a permanent human presence on Mars. Such a program would receive enthusiastic, unwavering financial support when the entire world understands that humanity is finally embarked on a dramatic new course out into the universe.

Just like the wildly successful (and profitable) Apollo moon landing effort, the human Mars landing should be an all-American project. Some experts claim that the return on investment (ROI) to the US from new and applied technology acquired during Apollo was as much as ten dollars in public benefit for each dollar our government spent. For a manned Mars program, do we really want to invite other countries to be partners and then have to share the tremendous ROI with them?



THE ONLY PROJECT THAT COULD INSPIRE HIGH TECH INDUSTRY IN THE UNITED STATES IS A SHORT DURATION, FOCUSED MISSION TO MARS-McLane ‘10

[James C.; Associate Fellow in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; The Space Review; 1 June 2010; http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1635/1; retrieved 25 July 2011]


The American aerospace industry seems oblivious to a unique business situation that offers the greatest potential in its history for long-term profit. Since the end of the Cold War, our aerospace firms have struggled to remain viable in the face of fickle government contracts, staffing challenges, and foreign competition. America has no shortage of inventors; indeed we may offer the world’s best cradle for innovation, but our aerospace companies are straining to hold on in the global marketplace.

The only potential NASA program with a real ability to capture the enthusiastic support of the American public is a short duration, focused drive to send a human to live permanently on Mars.


AN UNDERTAKING LIKE MARS DIRECT WOULD DRIVE MANY TIMES THE COST OF THE PROJECT INTO THE ECONOMY-Zubrin '96

[Robert; President of the Mars Society; Mars on a shoestring; November/December 1996; page 20]


If NASA were to undertake Mars Direct, the cost of developing the required hardware would amount to roughly $20 billion, with each individual Mars mission costing about $2 billion once the ships and equipment were in production. Spent over a period of 10 years, $20 billion would represent only about 7 percent of the combined U.S. budgets for military and civilian space exploration. This money could also drive our economy forward, much as spending $70 billion (in today's dollars) on science and technology in the Apollo program contributed to rapid U.S. economic growth during the 1960s.
A MARS MISSION WOULD INCREASE THE RETURN ON INVESTMENT INTO NASA-Zubrin '99

[Robert; President of the Mars Society; Sending Humans to Mars; Scientific American Presents; 1999; page 46]


There are additional reasons to send humans to Mars. Nations, like people, thrive on challenge; they languish without it. The space program needs a challenge. Consider these statistics: Between 1961 and 1973, with the impetus of the moon race, NASA produced technological innovations at a rate several orders of magnitude greater than that it has shown since. Even so, NASA's average budget in real dollars then was only about 20 percent more than today ($16 billion 1998 dollars compared with $13 billion). Why the enhanced productivity? Because NASA had a goal that forced its reach to exceed its grasp. Far from being a waste of money, having NASA take on the challenge of a manned mission to Mars is the key to giving the nation a real return for its space dollars.
MARS DIRECT WOULD PUT SUBSTANTIAL INVESTMENT INTO THE ECONOMY, JUST LIKE APOLLO DID-Zubrin '97

[Robert; President of the Mars Society; The Case for Mars The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must; 1997; Kindle Edition; Location 246]


A rough cost estimate for Mars Direct would be about $20 billion to develop all the required hardware, with each individual Mars mission costing about $2 billion once the ships and equipment were in production. While certainly a great sum, spent over a period of ten years it would only represent about 7 percent of the existing combined military and civilian space budgets. Furthermore, this money could drive our economy forward in just the same way as the spending of $70 billion (in today’s terms) on science and technology in the Apollo program contributed to the high rates of economic growth of America during the 1960s.
A/T: MARS IS TECHNICALLY IMPOSSIBLE
RELATIVE TO OUR TECHNOLOGY TODAY, A MISSION TO MARS IS LESS CHALLENGING THAN A MISSION TO THE MOON IN 1961-Pendick '09

[Daniel; Next step MARS?; Astronomy; August 2009; page 30]


Zubrin has heard all this before. But he remains immune to naysayers and unrepentant in his belief in the importance of going to Mars. For him, the dream dates to the Kennedy-era rhetoric that inspired him to join the aerospace industry in the first place. Cue sound byte: We go to Mars not because it's easy, but because it is hard.

"Relative to our technology today, a mission to Mars is much less challenging than a mission to the Moon was in 1961," Zubrin says. "For us to throw up our hands at these problems and say we just can't do it is really saying we've become less of a people than we used to be."


MARS IS CURRENTLY WITHIN OUR REACH-Zubrin '09

[Robert; President of the Mars Society; The moon–mars initiative: Making the vision real; Futures; October 2009; page 541]


In order to accomplish anything in space we need to set a goal. What should that goal be? In my view, the answer is straightforward: Humans to Mars within a decade [3], [4] and [5].

Why Mars? Because of all the planetary destinations currently within reach, Mars offers the most, both scientifically, socially, and in terms of what it portends for the human future.


CAN’T LET PERCEPTIONS OF TECHNOLOGY GAPS STOP EXPLORATION-McLane ‘10

[James C.; Associate Fellow in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; The Space Review; 1 June 2010; http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1635/1; retrieved 25 July 2011]


Some suggest we should wait for better technology to arrive so we can make a human trip to Mars safer. What if Columbus had decided not to travel across the Atlantic until he could go on a steamship?
AFTER A COMMITMENT BY THE UNITED STATES, THE TECHNOLOGY COULD BE READY FOR A MARS MISSION IN JUST 8 YEARS-Khadaroo '08

[Stacy; A mission to Mars, in Utah; The Christian Science Monitor; 26 March 2008; page 13]


He was part of an eight-person international crew including engineers, a biologist, and a GPS expert all doing their own research. For two weeks, they traded earthly conveniences for scientific progress. They imposed a delay of roughly 20 minutes on e-mails. When they ventured outside their cylindrical two-level habitat, they had to wait in an airlock and don bulky simulated spacesuits - complete with boots, ski gloves, and bulbous helmets.

The Mars Society has been running mock missions since 2002 to promote - and prepare for - sending humans to a frontier that only telescopes and rovers have explored so far. "It's kind of a dress rehearsal," says Robert Zubrin, president and founder of the nonprofit society based in Lakewood, Colo. "We're looking to see what would work on Mars and what wouldn't - what skill mix, what character mix, what set of tools...." The society also operates a research station in Canada's Devon Island in the Arctic.

Mr. Zubrin believes a Mars program could inspire this generation of youths the way the 1960s moon program inspired him. The technology would be ready if the new American president would commit next year, he says: "We could be on Mars before the end of their second term."
UNLIKE APOLLO, WE HAVE THE KNOW-HOW RIGHT NOW TO BUILD MARS MACHINES-Portree '97

[David S.F.; The new Martian chronicles; Astronomy; August 1997; page 32]


Whichever approach is chosen, what all of them have in common is the speed with which they could be pulled off. Unlike the early Apollo planners, who weren't even sure they could get astronauts into near-Earth space, much less fling them out to the moon, Mars-mission directors have the basic space-travel technology down cold. All they need is the go-ahead to design and build their machines.
PICKING THE GOAL OF MARS WILL DO A LOT TO START THE PROCESS OF DEVELOPING THE INFRASTRUCTURE TO MAKE IT WORK-Zubrin '09

[Robert; President of the Mars Society; The moon–mars initiative: Making the vision real; Futures; October 2009; page 541]


Exploring Mars requires no miraculous new technologies, no orbiting spaceports, and no gigantic interplanetary space cruisers We do not need to spend the next 30 years with a space program mired in impotence, spending large sums of money and taking occasional casualties while the same missions to nowhere are flown over and over again and professional technologists dawdle endlessly in their sand boxes without producing any new flight hardware. We simply need to choose our destination, and with the same combination of vision, practical thinking, and passionate resolve that served us so well during Apollo, do what is required to get there.
EARTH-BASED MISSIONS AND EXPERIMENTS HAVE CREATED KNOWLEDGE THAT COULD BE USED FOR ANY EXPLORATION MISSION-Khadaroo '08

[Stacy; A mission to Mars, in Utah; The Christian Science Monitor; 26 March 2008; page 13]


During Cunio's mission in February, he tracked supplies in the MIT research team's Smart Small Logistics Container - garbage bags, batteries, latex gloves. Using RFID (radio-frequency identification), the small hexagonal container can communicate via a Web-based server when items have been removed and replaced.

Fellow MIT graduate student Arthur Guest did his two-week stint at the research station first, to set up and test the container, while Cunio and engineers from Aurora Flight Sciences provided remote support in Cambridge. Then the two switched places.

"This technology can be used for any exploration mission," Mr. Guest says. The Utah station "gives you a chance to take your idea, which you've designed in the laboratory setting, and then actually see how it works in a simulated environment," he adds. Cunio and a crewmate took the logistics container outside, walked 100 meters out and back, and strapped it to an ATV to test its transportability.



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