To Travel to Mars, is to Answer Questions and Further Progress

Why did Columbus travel west? Why did Marco Polo head east? to answer that, I’ll borrow a
quote from Indira Gandhi, The power to question is the basis of all human progress.
That is the answer, it is that pull, that unknown, that prospect of adventure and the desire to
question compel humans to seek new frontiers to explore especially those that exist in the
vastness of the universe, and simply be known as good, old-fashioned curiosity. And they are all
an effort to further human progress.
As such, Mars is an obvious target for exploration because it is close by in our Solar System,
but there are many more reasons to explore the Red Planet. The scientific reasons for going to
Mars can be summarized by the search for life, understanding the surface and the planet’s
evolution, and preparing for future human exploration.
Not only that, Mars is the most similar planet to Earth in the Solar System. And evidence
suggests that Mars was once full of water, warmer and had a thicker atmosphere, offering a
potentially habitable environment.
But the planet went through a dramatic transformation, and a world that was once rather
Earthlike became the dusty, dry husk we see today. The question now is, what happened?
Where did those liquids go, and what happened to the Martian atmosphere?
Exploring Mars helps scientists learn about momentous shifts in climate that can fundamentally
alter planets. It also lets us look for biosignatures, signs that might reveal whether life was
abundant in the planet’s past—and if it still exists on Mars today. And, the more we learn
about Mars, the better equipped we’ll be to try to make a living there, someday in the future.

And there are a number of other reasons to travel to Mars, and they’re all basically to further the
progress of humanity through missions that will jumpstart massive developments in all kinds of
areas.

First, we can further advance science. One of the most crucial features of humanity is our
curiosity about the life, the universe, and how things operate. Exploring space provides a means
to satisfy our thirst for knowledge and improve our understanding of ourselves and our place in
the universe.
Space travel already has exploded centuries-old myths and promises to continue to confront our
long-held assumptions about who we are and where we come from. And as scientists mine new
data from space telescopes, space travel, and robotic exploration. Ten or twenty years from
now, we may have about life is outside of Earth, whether it is possible for humans to survive on
other planets, and how planets evolve over time.
Then second, new technologies can be developed. Going to Mars requires similar
inventiveness. Scientists have had to figure out how to search for life in ancient rocks, drill for
rock samples, take high resolution videos, develop flying machines in a place with gravity that is
40 percent lower than on Earth, and take off from another planet. In the future, we can expect
large payoffs in developments from Mars exploration and advances that bring new
conveniences and inventions to people.
Third, we can facilitate space mining. Many objects around the solar system are made of
similar minerals and chemical compounds that exist on Earth. That means that some asteroids,
moons, and planets could be rich in minerals and rare elements. Figuring out how to harvest
those materials in a safe and responsible manner and bring them back to Earth represents a
possible benefit of space exploration, manufacturing, product design, and resource distribution.
This mission could help resource utilization through advances and would help humans live and
work on the Red Planet.

And finally, is the realization of an amazing dream. Imagine living on another planet, millions
of miles from the Earth; looking up into the sky with the knowledge that one of the 'stars' is
actually the planet you were born on. Just as how humanity in the past questioned “can humans
walk on the moon?”, Those who observed Neil Armstrong land on the Moon all those years ago
still remember how they felt. And now we have a new question, “can humans walk on mars? or
can we live on mars?” And so, harking back to the quote “The power to question is the basis of
all human progress.” the moment we can answer that question, and the first astronauts land on
Mars will be a moment to remember as another step of humanity’s progress.