Bryan Jandres

Galileo

WAS Argumentative Essay

Move Over Venus, Mars Comes First

For the last few decades- along with the Moon- Mars has been a highly talked about subject for

exploration. Various current missions such as InSight, Curiosity, ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, and many

more have provided the world with information of planet Mars that is getting humans ready to possibly

explore the planet in the decades to come (The Planetary Society, 2018). Mars has been a focus of NASA

for a very long time now, making it a high priority for exploration. Alongside with Mars, talks about the

exploration of Venus have been presented as well. This would be a new path for NASA, as Mars

exploration has been focused on for a while. Venus’s exploration would be a new challenge for the

world, as it has many differences than what we see on Mars such as its uninhabitable surface compared

to the habitable one seen on Mars. Due to all this, Mars is the better planet to explore first due to the

vast amount of information already gathered of the planet, and how much work has been put into it as

well.

Despite that Mars is the better option to explore first, Venus can be a place for exploration in

the future as well. Venus has lots of information to offer and can be a great and exciting opportunity to

push human limits. What the world does know of Venus is the differences it has compared to Mars, and

other planets in our solar system. A great difference and challenge presented on Venus is its atmosphere

which does not allow for humans to land and survive on due to high atmospheric pressure, temperature,

and acidic clouds (MoF Digital Learning, n.d.). Due to all this astronauts would have to live above the

clouds in an airship, and designs have been created to simulate how this would work; the High Altitude
Venus Operational Concept (HAVOC) introduced by NASA brings this idea to life and portrays HAVOC as

a “Cloud City” (NASA, 2018).

Even with the propositions presented and the opportunities present on Venus, the reasons for

not going to Venus outweighs the positives. Not much research and testing has been done on Venus to

make it a high priority. NASA has pretty much ignored Venus, as the last mission was the Magellan

mission in the 1990s that mapped its surface (Carter, 2018). If we were to hypothetically choose Venus

first before Mars, we would have to stop all work for Mars and use all manpower to get to Venus. This

would pretty much throw away research gathered throughout the last 6 decades just to reach a planet

us humans barely know of. It would not be worth switching plans even with the opportunities

presented, so NASA and various other space agencies should postpone this Mission until after Mars

exploration.

Now that it is clearly visible that Mars is a better first option, the reasons to visit Mars are great.

NASA and many space agencies have already gathered information that can lead us to the exploration of

the planet, such as: geology, landing on the planet, the terrain of the planet, and much more. Thanks to

rovers such as opportunity information has been provided of the planet such as evidence of a once wet

surface, and conditions for sustaining microbial life (NASA, n.d.). Due to the vast amount of information

already gathered of planet Mars, exploration is much easier, and is truly easier to plan. The benefits

from exploring the planet Mars will be grand, as us humans are finally going to be on the surface-and

not in the clouds- of a planet other than Earth’s. The world will be able learn new knowledge and truly

unlock many opportunities for new discoveries in the future.

Even though the positives outweigh the negatives for going to Mars, they must be addressed.

Mars does in fact have its own difficulties as well. Dangers like radiation, lack of oxygen, and low gravity

can be reasons seen to not go to Mars, but with the work of many people in numerous space agencies
there is ways to work around these dangers (MoF Digital Learning, n.d.). The cost will also end up being

a great amount, but the overall result will be worth the money. Venus is far more dangerous, and we

know much less about the planet to work around these dangers. It would be a greater cost to start new

missions to Venus than to use already existing knowledge to go to Mars.

Mars is truly a greater first option to look forward to, and Venus should follow. The pros for

exploring Mars greatly outweigh those of Venus, and on top of that the dangers for exploring Venus

brings it down even more. Once us humans truly get a hold of the technology and further explore more

of Mars, further exploration of Venus can occur. The idea of cloud missions is very much possible, but

there is still is lots of knowledge needed to be gathered to follow up with this idea. So, before we

explore and learn about Venus, we must prioritize Mars first and use that knowledge to help those in

the space industry make it easier to get Venus.

 References

Brabaw, K. (2019, January 7). From Radiation to Isolation: 5 Big Risks for Mars Astronauts

(Videos). Retrieved from https://www.space.com/42918-big-space-risks-mars-astronauts-

videos.html

Carter, J. (2018, May 22). Should we go to Venus instead of Mars? Retrieved from

https://www.techradar.com/news/should-we-go-to-venus-instead-of-mars

Greicius, T. (2015, March 13). Mars Exploration Past Missions. Retrieved from

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/missions/index-past.html

HAVOC. (2018). Retrieved from https://sacd.larc.nasa.gov/smab/havoc/

Mars Exploration Rover - Opportunity. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/mars-exploration-rover-opportunity-mer/

Missions to Mars. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.planetary.org/explore/space-topics/space-

missions/missions-to-mars.html

Museum of Flight Digital Learning. (n.d.). Exploring the Larger Solar System. Retrieved from

https://was.museumofflight.org/mod/lesson/view.php?id=1805