Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Journey To Mars

During my childhood, while watching an interplanetary Sci-fi movie I asked the adult accompanying me. "So Neil Armstrong was the first man on Moon, but who was the first person on Mars?". The Grown-up nonchalantly replied, "No one, We didn't go to Mars.". On my further questioning, I was told about the sad state of absence of planetary travel.


That was probably one of the saddest reveals to the little me. I had spent the rest of that evening sitting on stairs, pondering to come to terms with the level of regression of humanity. After all, I use to watch shows about the galaxy far far away with the older kids in the family and thought that was pretty much the reality of galaxy far far away. That one information made me feel like we were living in stone age. Now, I find it quite amusing that I had taken the Sci-fi portrait by the entertainment media to be the real world.

However, the world changed since my childhood and the technology upgraded exponentially. Alongside I kept tabs on the expansion of technology. I still have the scrapbook I kept for the newspaper articles on Spirit and Opportunity.  I gained knowledge on the technology through books and internet. I was very excited for the Curiosity Mars rover. It is one of the most monumental projects on planetary science. It provided us abundant information and the with the internet that information super-accessible.

Today we are at a place where we have the technology, to take humans to mars, in its rudimentary form. Nasa estimates to put humans on Mars by 2040s. However, sadly governments are shying away from investing in science. The input of private companies has a very important part to play in the goal of making humans space nomads. One such company (and currently the biggest player in the field of space exploration) is Elon Musk's SpaceX. 

Elon Musk, in a presentation last year, pushed in this time constraint to reach Mars. He had put forward his plan to land human on Mars within a decade. Musk's plan not only plans to make a human visit the planet but also to colonize it. If you know anything about Elon Musk you must also be aware of the fact that he is a man of grand visions. When I first heard about Elon's plan reveal I knew it was going to be promising. Unlike, Mars One which was DOA. So much so that the enthusiasm for Mars One basically infuriated the nerd in me.


Musk's ambitious plan aims to eventually form a self-sustaining colony on Mars. He aims for Mars to support a population of a million humans. The most important and revolutionary aspect of Musk's plan is the reusability of the space ship. The announcement of the project was an hour long video explaining how SpaceX will execute this design. He plans to provide an affordable travel to Mars for anyone who wants to go. Each mission/space flight will eventually be taking 100 passengers on a reusable interplanetary vehicle that Space X aims to employ for the project. You can watch the video here

In fact, early this year SpaceX successfully tested the launch and landing of  Falcon 9, The reusable rocket. This is one of most historic achievement in Aerospace. It can cut down the cost of space travel to a great extent. Following is the video of the test.I find it extremely cheerful to watch, It is one of my favorite videos. The sweet adrenalin rush! 


The need for this expansion of our living space is something that is instinctual to human. That is what we human do. The first homo sapiens were limited to Africa, still, over time, we conquered the whole planet. Prehistoric Humans traveled and settled down to the far off locations with a wide range of living conditions. Even Australia and America, despite having ocean restriction, were populated by humans who traveled to those locations from Africa. We have an extraordinary ability to survive in the oddest of the condition and innovative brains to look beyond the horizon.

Thus Living and existing only on this planet is a myopic point of view. Keeping in mind our history, our desire to take the leap is inevitable. The future human will try to push the limits further. Moreover, eventually, our planet will stop supporting us. Being the only species of homo genus it is our existential calling to make sure that out DNA is passed on. It will evolve into something new as the rule of nature. We are aware of this phenomenon, unlike our cousins, have a special responsibility to deliberately make efforts for the long run. It is not an individual human being, but is about the mysterious thing we call "consciousness". We possess the wonderful ability to register our existence in the universe. The attempts to keep it alive is probably the best thing to do. Though, it would be just a small step on the scale of the vast universe it will be the first one. Talking about interstellar world seem too farfetched for us but it is not so on an evolutionary scale. 


If I get a chance to travel to Mars in my lifetime I would hop on board at once. Spoiler alert for my fellow travelers I get grumpy whenI am hungry. So don't forget to carry extra snacks!

Would you travel to Mars If you could? Would you like to move there? Let me know in the comment section. 

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22 comments:

  1. Pretty interesting. Until I read your post, I have never thought of space travel. If good given a chance, why not?

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  2. You clearly love Mars given the passion with which you've spoken about it. But it's fascinating to see the strides that man has taken on this journey, right? From the moon to a possible Mars journey in less than a 100 years. That's a quantum leap right there. Still not sure of the feasibility of colonisation since it will take a long time, but it's certainly fun to speculate.

    *J for Job: Shailaja/The Moving Quill*

    *Theme:Oxymoron in 100 words
    *Category: Flash Fiction/ Writing/ WR

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    1. Oh I do love Mars! It is my favorite planet. I am counting on Elon Musk he is a man of his words and his ongoing work is pretty promising. Fingers crosses.
      Thanks for stopping by :)

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  3. Being a life-time Trekkie, I'd travel anywhere in space, be it Mars or anywhere else. It's the final frontier you know! I imagine, in my dreams, that there are places and people out there we would benefit from finding. I love your topic today!

    Jordan

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    1. Thanks! :) I am glad you liked it.
      Good to see you stop by.

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  4. I think the trouble with getting something like that going, is that for the first few people to go, it will be incredibly lonely and a lot of work- it will likely seem like you are missing out on life if you choose to go- until there are enough people there to create a society.


    My A to Z:
    Harry Potter

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    1. Definitely, in the mentioned presentation Musk pointed out that the first group will be told, if you are ready to die get on board... So I may skip the first few flights, and latter maybe I'll wait for it to get cheap if I'll be still poor. :/
      Thanks for stopping by :)

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  5. Space travel is not my cuppa of tea though I love watching star trek and other such sci fi adventures.
    I love my green planet (dont smirk, its still green) and cant imagine not having the birds trilling in the morning when I saunter out on the terrace with my cuppa or the flowers and that breeze - Oh yes!! No space travel for me!!!
    But your premise sure is interesting Karnika!!!! :-)

    Theme: Peregrination Chronicles (travel)
    J is for Japanese dancers in the hot sands of Pushkar #atozchallenge

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    1. Thanks! I am glad you found it interesting. :)

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  6. I would definitely travel to Mars. As for living there, I'd have to too see what their cable package for wildlife documentaries was like.
    PS - I always pack extra snacks.

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    1. Yup those things may be worth considering first.
      Extra snacks always makes me happy!
      Thanks for stopping by :)

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  7. Interesting post. Loved your passion for a trip to Mars. I havent considered it yet, but my 6 year old has his list of items all set for the journey...including snacks :)

    Stopped by from the #atoz challenge. Check out my quotes on the journey of life too..
    http://archanablogs.wordpress.com/2017/04/11/j-is-for-journey/

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    1. Snacks! Glad to know that! :)
      Thanks for stopping by

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  8. Ooh! I too am a fan of Elon Musk and his bigger than life ideas and aspirations. I've read the Martian, and the Illustrated Man, and I'm super excited for the day when Mars travel and life become possible. You said 2040? I'll be 41 by then. Enough time for me to save coins and notes to build a red future :P

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    1. Same! I can't wait for this plan to play out.
      :) Thanks for stopping by, Mithila!

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  9. I understand your passion, which I've shared since the first man on the moon. It will indeed happen some day. Very interesting post. Thank you.

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    1. I can only imagine how wonderful it must have been to see man step on moon for first time! I am glad you liked the post. :)
      Thanks for stopping by

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  10. Nope, no desire to go to Mars, even if it was as easy as hoping on the next spaceship. Such an endeavor would be amazing to watch, though. I would sit on my own overcrowded planet and compare the space pioneers with those pioneers from our history.

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    1. Nice to know. After all, Earth is home. :)
      Thanks for stopping by

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  11. No, I wouldn't even consider a trip to Mars. I rarely say I'm too old for anything, but this is one thing I would be too old for. I like my earthly comforts too much.

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    1. Earth is awesome. Right! :)
      Thanks for stopping buy.

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