Some people prefer to solve global problems than launch astronauts to other planets. It was a time of systemic inequality and fears of nuclear war that people questioned the Apollo program in the 1960's. Climate-related efforts and monitoring of near-Earth asteroids are more popular than missions to the moon and Mars, according to public opinion surveys.
If people weren't starving and dying, it would be easier to justify going to the moon. Natalie Trevio is a space theoretician at the Open University in the UK. She says that the drive to explore isn't always logical. We make art and music. The experience of living in contradiction is what it is. It is both beautiful and sad.
The first astronauts may be scientists, poets, tourists, or military officers. They could be seen as either visitors or settlers. She favors including an artist to make sense of the experience of living on this ruddy, barren world, and she prefers the term "migrants" to be destigmatized.
It works if humanity overcomes the cost and practical barriers of setting up a colony on Mars. Maybe Mars would be better off if we didn't exist.
We will corrupt the Martian atmosphere if our treatment of Earth is any indication. We are going to litter it with junk because we have ruined our own world. We could either live out Musk's desire to terraform the world by blowing up nukes to create a "nuclear winter", or we could do something else. There are huge risks to the proposed schemes to combat climate change.
We would reproduce the economic inequalities and unsustainable practices already prevalent on Earth. There is a limited supply of Martian ice, but no binding rules say who can use it, how much, or what purpose it serves. If any Martian life-form lies underground, terraforming and mining attempts may destroy them and their environment, and who are we to decide their fate? It is the height of arrogance for a single species to decide what to do with a planet that is not their homeworld.
As we move toward Mars, we should be ambitious and curious, but also thoughtful and ethical. Our travels many millions of miles away will likely remind us how fortunate we are to have our own world.
Half a century ago, astronauts on NASA's Apollo 8 mission became the first humans to leave Earth's atmosphere and travel 240,000 miles away from the moon. The first crewed voyage to the moon gave the astronauts a chance to take pictures of our planet above the lunar horizon.
The most famous of the images they captured was taken on December 24, 1968 and is now known as Earthrise. The photograph shows two contrasting themes: the accomplishment of sending its first ambassadors to the moon and the smallness of our species in the universe.
John F. Kennedy set a goal of landing a person on the moon by the end of the decade. The 1960's were almost over. Kennedy had been killed. The US and Soviet Union suffered terrible losses in their space programs in the year before Earthrise, with NASA losing three astronauts and the Soviet Union losing one.
NASA was able to see Kennedy's plan to fruition despite the unfortunate events. The agency decided to go ahead with a crewed mission to the moon. In retrospect, it was one of the most risky decisions NASA has ever made, but in less than two months, the Apollo 8 astronauts had made the voyage.
Apollo 11 landed on the moon seven months after that mission. The Earthrise photo was shared all over the world. For the first time, Earthbound humans were able to experience a view of the universe that only a few people have ever had.
Nicole Stott, a former flight engineer for the International Space Station, said that Earthrise is an image that will stay with you forever. It's a beautiful reality check of who and where we all are.
Space historian Frank White has called the sense of global consciousness brought on by seeing Earth at great remove the overview effect.
Each quarter million mile trip, Earthrise saves us. You don't have to feel bad if you still want to leave politics.
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