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HOW TO GET THERE AND STAY Over thirty years ago, Gene Cernan was the last man to have walked on another world. After he stepped off the surface of the moon, the realization that men would soon ultimately return to exploring the planets became believable. Mars was the obvious next step. Everything costs money. In order to complete that dream, enough funds will need to be produced in order to create new propulsion systems and ways of staying on the planet. There are many ways in which the human race can feasibly “Pay For Mars.” Paying For Mars The quote, ‘No Bucks, No Buck Rogers’, was coined at the beginning of the space age and it still remains true. The only thing that is stopping that eagerly awaited for manned mission to Mars is the money to do so. The estimated cost of a trip to Mars by a government is about twenty to thirty billion dollars. This sum is not a small amount of money, and the obvious reason that no one has actually gone to Mars so far is because there will be little initial return on the investment. There has been an idea proposed called Sell-Mars. The way this would work is to set up a non-profit organization to administrate the sale, marketing, and ultimate colonization of Mars. If the planet were to be sold at $10 for an acre, it would be worth about 350 billion dollars, which is actually a hundred times more money than is needed. Any person, government, or private company could their very own part of Mars. Also, for $1000, you cold have your very own small Mars rock delivered right to your door. You could also name the mountains and valleys the first explorers were to discover for varying amounts. At least one billion people watched the Apollo 11 launch. How much would Coke or Pepsi be willing to pay in order to paint the shuttle to look like a giant can of pop. These are just some of the ways in which the organization could raise enough money to send men to Mars. Of course there is no complete, 100% guarantee that the money sent will return in the form of Mars rocks or a legitimate land claim. The money would obviously have to be raised before the first shuttle left the launch pad. The money needed may never be raised or the shuttles may never make it into space. There is no way of predicting what would happen in the future. There are other ways of going to Mars. If every person in the world chipped in on the bill, they would only need to pay $1. This can obviously not be expected. Also, if every country chipped it, it would only cost them twenty-five million dollars each, which is not bad for places like Canada and the United States, but could be much harder to attain for the developing world. Whatever the decision is to pay for the trip to Mars, the first problem scientists will encounter is how to get there. A new, more efficient propulsion system needs to be created to speed up space travel. |
MARS
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