New Mars

What is the future for manned missions to Mars in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks? Joel McKinnon examines how the Mars advocacy movement must respond to the disaster.

In the aftermath of the horrific attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon no one wanted to think much about Mars. What thoughts there were tended to be fairly gloomy. A poster to the Mars Society’s Civilization and Culture mailing list summed up this thinking with the question, “Did we just run out of time for a manned Mars mission in our generation, if ever?” He made a compelling argument that the immediate future for Mars exploration faces a number of suddenly formidable obstacles in the wake of the atrocities. $40 billion out of an already stressed budget to go toward repairing the damage in NY and fighting the terrorists, more unknown costs ahead from potential escalations in the battle with these dark forces, a looming recession. This sentiment has been echoed by many others across the Internet. Will Mars exploration take a back seat to a more immediate focus on these admittedly serious issues indefinitely?

Let’s take a step back and think about the world before 9-11. Several exciting discoveries had been made in the previous year that had increased the public’s interest in Mars. The Mars Global Surveyor had beamed back remarkable evidence of what appeared to be water-driven erosion near the surface and clear indications of ancient lakes and ponds possibly harboring life. The now-famous Allen Hills meteorite discovered in Antarctica seemed to show even more evidence of fossil life on Mars. A Silicon Valley software tycoon had appeared from nowhere planning to pour millions into a series of privately financed missions to Mars, and James Cameron was plugging away at his latest and greatest masterpiece - a TV miniseries and 3D IMAX movie about a mission to Mars. The Mars Society’s annual conference featured the announcement of its first genuine space mission - a plan to test the effects of artificial gravity on mammals in low Earth orbit. There was a great spread in National Geographic, a pair of big budget Hollywood movies; it seemed like Mars was popping up everywhere. Still, despite all of this excitement and infusion of new resources, in many ways Mars seemed farther away than ever. NASA seemed unable to seriously consider a manned mission. The attendance at the convention was the same as every year and it generated little press interest. The Mars Society seemed to be failing at making a connection with the public. The movement had energy - but little sign of momentum.

Where was the rising clarion call to get a manned mission underway? We certainly had the resources. There were no significant scientific or engineering obstacles- indeed far less than there were at the time of the commencement of the Apollo program. The Mars Society, driven by Robert Zubrin’s well-articulated vision, was pointing the way and saying, “This is how it can be done - let’s do it!” But the public seemed to yawn and look the other way. People seemed to feel that Mars exploration was in the realm of fantasy. They were willing to spend 7 or 8 bucks for a couple of hours of good (or not so good) escapist entertainment, but spend serious tax dollars? That’s another thing entirely. The feeling seemed to be that the Apollo missions were enough - we’d proven the important point. Ours’ is a great nation that was the first to reach the moon. Our flag still stands there to prove it. Take that, evil empire! Now, the lust for exploration is reflected in the desire to own the latest and greatest all terrain SUV - even if it never leaves the city. Now, the goal is to work hard to insure that life remains comfortable indefinitely. We need to be able to afford the best home theater systems money can buy to properly enjoy those mediocre space movies.

Along came Osama bin Laden and his wrecking crew and the world may never be the same again. Our leaders seem to be saying that, while they punish the evil doers, the rest of us can best stick it to the terrorists by going on as if this never happened - keep spending money and remaining content - keep feathering our nests. The health of our economy is our reason for being, isn’t it?

I wish those people hadn’t had to die in such a horrible and heartless way, but I hope very much that the world does not return to business as usual. I think humanity deserves better than the path of materialistic self-satisfaction we’ve been given as our reason for living.

In the words of the Dalai Lama:

“The events of this day cause every thinking person to stop their daily lives, whatever is going on in them, and to ponder deeply the larger questions of life.

We search again for not only the meaning of life, but the purpose of our individual and collective experience as we have created it-and we look earnestly for ways in which we might recreate ourselves anew as a human species, so that we will never treat each other this way again.

The hour has come for us to demonstrate at the highest level our most extraordinary thought about Who We Really Are.”

I dare now to hope that with those 6,000 people having paid such an outrageous price, humanity can do as his holiness suggests and stop to think and ponder the deeper questions. Do we really want to wall off the parts of this Earth with a high standard of living and merely ineffectually airdrop care packages to the starving billions in the third world, maintaining the illusion that as long as we are doing something, that it is enough? I believe that as long as we maintain this sense of separateness from the rest of humanity we will be a sick species. Terror attacks are completely inappropriate as a means of redressing the imbalances in wealth in the world - but they may be inevitable. Hopefully, larger and larger numbers among the ‘haves’ will begin to adopt this new, inclusive, planetary view. If we can avoid making the problem worse by resorting to an escalating cycle of violence, we may find that humanity’s need to work together to solve these and other global issues can begin to heal the human psyche and allow the world to gain true strength and power. The age of flags and footprints must end. In the future, extraordinary adventures such as the exploration and settlement of distant planets must be world missions and the source of bountiful shared pride in humanity. No nation should feel that they must be the strongest, the first, the best. Yet nationality can still have a role. We can be proud of our nations’ efforts as constructive collaborators in a project undertaken in the name of the human race.

The Mars Society can be a leader in this transformation by embracing the world in our vision. All conferences should be international conferences. All initiatives should be open to all nations. The idea of research stations in Australia and Iceland is a great start. But also, we need to connect with the poets, artists, and musicians throughout the world who can speak so eloquently to the masses and whose language is universal. We also need to be clearer about our love for the Earth as the core consciousness of humanity. We cannot come off as escapists. We must be clear that expanding humanity’s habitat into space and understanding these new worlds can have profound benefits for the future of our species and for our home planet. Space consciousness and global consciousness are one and the same.

This is not the time to lay low and wait for things to get back to normal before resuming our advocacy for a human Mars mission, the reason being that ‘normal’ was not getting us where we need to be, and the current situation includes a potential blessing amongst the horror. People are shaken and unsettled. This is when their minds are most open to change and a new perspective. Let’s redouble our efforts now, make next year’s convention a statement of our renewed vigor and optimism and break all previous convention attendance records. Let’s also make sure that people hear about us and realize we’re speaking for humanity’s future.

Filed under: Articles on October 12th, 2001