HOME | POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI/TECH | OPEDS | HELPFUL TIPS
|
Jan 29, 2004 George Bush revealed a vision last week: in the year of 2030 Americans will walk on Mars. Wow, it´s the first time the president has got a clear vision and it is not a small one. Will he have considered it thoroughly, thinking about all the pros and contras? I´m afraid he has not, as usual. The whole idea seems rather thoughtless to me. Why on earth should there be men walking around on Mars? With all the technology we are able to send into space right now, we can conclude with a certainty of 99,9% life is not present on Mars. How could it be, seen the fact the temperature there is below 60 degrees at some spots? So, what would we be able to do there?: freezing our superfluous meat and corn supplies we have on earth and are not willing to sell or, better, to give away to people who are starving? Building a big hall for ice skating there? Getting there in the first place won´t be that easy either. The flight will take some seven moths forth and seven months back. Poor astronauts. Being on each other lips for 14 months. Even people who are very much in love with each other need enough space from time to time. How about food, drinks, leisure etc.? Imagine, one astronaut is a rock fan, the other likes classical music only and they both want to play their music on the stereo which is on board and not only on their disc man? What if one astronaut is a vegetarian and the other not? What if one astronaut only likes Coca Cola and the other one only drinks Pepsi Cola? Okay, serious talk from now on. I´m not against space travel in itself. It teaches us a lot about life on earth and such knowledge is very useful, but let´s look at in perspective. Going to Mars costs a lot of money. That amount can´t be spend anymore on other space travel projects. There´s a great technical risk involved and what will it teach us in the end of Mars we couldn´t learn any other way? Are we willing to wait for almost 30 years for a short human triumph in space while there are so many deteriorating environmental problems on our own planet? If we don´t watch out, life on earth may have already become almost an impossibility around that time! George Bush should have considered these things first before screaming Americans will be on Mars in 2030 the latest. Oh, I understand. Elections are coming on again. Although Saddam Hussein has been arrested, the situation in Iraq is still a mess. Osama Bin Laden can´t be found. So why not put his visions higher? That´s a dangerous way of thinking. As long as president Bush isn´t able to solve his problems on earth, he shouldn´t be expressing visions that are not feasible the first decade (s). But would the trip to Mars become true and he´s still alive and physically well enough in 2030, I propose George Bush will be the first man to go to Mars. Will his presidency in the first four years of this century have had one success after all. ------------ Email Johan Peters: johan.peters@johanpeters.net Comment on this column in the forum. Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
