What can we expect from Mars?

For many years mankind has launched rockets with rovers and satellites in the direction of Mars to explore its atmosphere, surface, geological structure and physical properties. With every mission, we learn more about the nature and structure of mars and for some years people are talking about colonizing the planet. Is this even science fiction or can that become reality?

The red planet - secret and exploration target of mankind

The main reason for exploring Mars is the scientific knowledge we can get and use them for our own advantages. The factor that is making especially Mars very interesting in a scientific way, is its earth resemblance that no other planet in our solar system has. Mars is only a little bit smaller than the earth, it’s a planet out of stones and its geographical features are similar to this on Earth. Also, we discovered polar caps which are, like on earth, out of ice. Maybe not the kind of ice we have, but definitely a material that is very similar to ice on Earth.

The partnership - can NASA and SpaceX reach Mars together?

In 2002 a big private rocket company joined the game - Spacex. SpaceX did exactly what every person was just smiling at, they built landable and reusable rockets. The company also has a plan for how to get humas with a special designed spacecraft to Mars. SpaceX has proved its skillset often enough and for a few months NASA decideed to cooperate. Their plan is to bundle their strengths and supplement each other. So NASA can bring in a safe budget and a lot of experiences and SpaceX will bring in it’s innovation and young engineers. Together they could increase their chance of bringing humans to Mars in the next decades.

Other players are joining the game - What roles are playing in China, India and UAE?

Also, other countries are launching rockets and successfully landed on Mars. China was a player for a couple of years and has started a rocket with a satellite on board that also carries a rover in it. This mission was China’s first independent mission to Mars. Some newcomers are India and the United Arabic Emirates (UAE), which has also launched one rocket to Mars last year.

Mars exploration - waste of financial resources or opportunity for mankind to be multi-planetary?

Aerospace needs a lot of money. Country space agencies mostly are getting paid by the countries themselves, which means the taxpayer finances these billion projects. Is this a justified investment? To answer this question it’s important to see the whole situation from a perspective where money doesn't play a role. Mostly it is only the uncertainty of knowing what kind of advantages this investment will bring. It’s clear that currently, we are only getting more data and knowledge, but if the plans of the space agencies will end up well, this investment will be paid back more than 10 times. If we reach Mars and get the opportunity to colonize Mars, we will get advantages that can solve other problems. And if you watch the actual development, mankind could be multi-planetary in a few decades.

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