1. Research Question: Should astronauts be allowed to go on a one-way mission to Mars? Mla source

UNIV 112

Annotated Bibliography 4

4 November 2015

Should astronauts be allowed to go on a one-way mission to Mars?

Rayna Elizabeth Slobodian works for York University in the Department of Anthropology. She has been a researcher since 2010. Since then, she has had four articles published, three of which are on the topic of space exploration.

The Mars One mission and other prospects of near future space colonization (within the next decade) are motivated more by zeal than objective realities.

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  The original missions to space by the United States and the USSR were motivated by the drive to “win” the space race and, more broadly, the Cold War.
  
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  Those who claim that humans have an inherent drive to explore in any way possible are incorrect; it is a desire, not a necessity of human biology.
  

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  Linda Billings was referenced as calling attention to the United States’ history of idealizing “pioneering, progress, enterprise, freedom, and rugged individualism…”
  
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  Dennis Tito has stated that his motivation for his proposed Inspiration Mars mission was to encourage Americans to get to Mars before the Chinese.
  
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  Carl Sagan was quoted as saying that past pioneers are an indication of humans’ inherent drive to explore. Taylor Dark referenced as a counter-argument, who says that there isn’t an inherent drive. There is simply the urge of individuals to explore; individuals whom should not be taken as a general consensus.
  
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  Steven Pyne was referenced as claiming that space travel is a cultural rather than biological motive.
  
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  MIT research was quoted as saying that the proposed Mars One mission would fail in merely months of its execution.
  

“American space agendas and stories were prominent through the 1960s and 70s, having been popularized by President Kennedy's speech to “conquer space” against the soviets [72:84]. Today, the nation versus nation space race continues, except that the threat to American pride is not only from the Soviets, but also from the Chinese.” (90)

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  This quote points out the possible flaw in the reasoning to explore space. In the case of the United States, space colonization was first motivated by the space race during the Cold War with the USSR. Today, the quote claims, this prideful motivation continues and has expanded to include China. This motivation is important to consider because it could blind future space missions from the United States, Russia, and China to objective hazards to exploration for the sake of egoism.
  

“He [Taylor Dark] is suggesting that maybe the biological motive is not as predetermined as the current space colonization story suggests. Sexual drives and procreation are also considered motivators, but we can cognitively choose to not act on those drives.” (91)

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  This quote argues against the (American) idea that humans are natural trailblazers. Instead, there are only individuals who have the desire to explore. The individuals should not be used to define humanity as a whole. This thought is interesting, considering a large driver for my research paper was exactly the reason Dark refutes here. This reminded me to remain objective and to not let pure zeal drive my ultimate conclusion.
  

“Researchers at MIT recently presented at the 65th International Astronautical Congress, focusing on how technically feasible the Mars One plan is. They suggest, “…the first crew fatality would occur approximately 68 days into the mission. This would be a result of suffocation from too low an oxygen partial pressure within the environment. However, Mars One founder Bas Lansdorp believes that the MIT researchers have come to “incorrect conclusions.”” (91)

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  This quote draw attention to the realistic implementation of the currently proposed plan to send humans on a one way trip to Mars. If correct in their assessment, it could be argued that zeal blinded the researchers for the Mars missions. However, MIT could be wrong. More outside sources should be found to see the general consensus of the science community on the proposed plan.
  

“The desire to survive as a species is told over and over, but do we need to survive? And if so, to what end? Changing our consumption habits might be just as effective, and potentially cheaper, than just going into space to survive and giving up on Earth.” (92)

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  This quote provides an alternative for colonizing Mars; rather than abandon earth, seek to prevent its rapid decay by controlling our energy consumption.
  
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  It also begs a difficult question to argue for: “why attempt to continue the human species at all?” It is difficult to argue in the sense that humans naturally do not want to die.
  

“Eventually, the crew [of the Star Trek Enterprise] learned that their actions were harmful to others because they did not spend the time to think about the consequences of their actions.” (102)

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  I won’t use this in the paper itself, but I will use it as a reminder that this source doesn’t simply say that space colonization should not happen. It is largely a criticism of the rush to colonize Mars within twenty years. It begs the important question, “why now?” By rushing, the missions to Mars may do more harm than good.