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Jenifer Garcia

Mrs. McCann

English 1302.203

13 March 2022

Exploration of the Red Planet

Mars is the solar system's fourth and second smallest planet. It is also known as the red

planet because of its rusty-looking red soil. The planet includes various iron minerals and oxides,

which contribute to the redness. Beyond being a legitimate aim for space exploration, Mars

colonization has been a worrying topic in recent years, spurred by the naive and questionable

ideas that this planet could one day be habitable to support human life. The investigation of Mars

has sparked numerous theories, many people believe that Mars exploration will be helpful to

humanity's growth. While researchers continue to conquer the technological challenges of deep

space missions, commercial and non-profit organizations alike are seriously considering

investigating and establishing alien colonies. Thanks to significant efforts by the world's space

agencies and, more notably, commercial firms, people are getting closer to having broad

technical capabilities to send a small number of colonists and equipment to Mars. This research

analysis presents the existing arguments about colonizing Mars, including the precautions

astronauts must take, why the rover was sent, and the planets geology, with an ethical viewpoint

on why Mars should not be explored and humanity should instead focus on solving Earth’s

problems first.

Different Ethical Views on the Exploration of Mars

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Ethical consideration towards Mars is being taken in account, questioning if it is ethical

to colonize it. In “Mars Colonization: Beyond Getting There”, Levchenko stated that there are

two different categories in ethical considerations. There are ethical consideration towards the

extra terrestrial life including Mars, as well as, ethical consideration towards the human life and

Earth. Human reproduction is one of the social and biological challenges that could path away

Mars colonization (6). “Studies of human population dynamics on Earth suggest that the success

of settlements on Mars would be inherently linked to the ability of early settlers to produce a

certain number of viable offspring as these would be critical for the survival and growth of the

colonies as self-sustained entities” (Levchenko 6). Meaning that to ensure a long term survival at

Mars, there has to be a well established colony that can be self sustained, that way, humans could

evolve and start to adapt to their new environment.

Understanding the Geology on Mars

Scientists provided a hypothesis that the geology of Mars used to be covered in oceans,

lakes and stromatolites. Later, it was discovered by “Mars Global Surveyor Missions” that the

scientist hypothesis was in-fact correct. It was also discovered that Mars had a water bacterium

that was biocompatible with an algae. Indicating that there were bacterial communities on the red

planet. “Most investigators directly involved in the exploration of Gale Crater by the rover

Curiosity agree that this area was habitable early in the history of Mars and was flush with water,

rivers, streams, and lakes” (Joseph 3). After talking of the hydration of the planet, the authors

continue to explain how the planet continued to dry off after a certain time. As of now, there are

still hopes that the planet still has those aquatic like areas, or that the planet can go back as to

how it was before the bodies of waters dried out.

The Risks for the Journey for the Red Planet

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As many people may know, there are various risks that astronauts face when going outer

space. These include the creation of their space suits and taking into account the risks of the

certain mission that they take. There is a chart that categorizes the different risks of the

occurrence of the disease. There are “red risks”, which is the one that astronauts may highly get

when they are in outer space. There are also “yellow risks”, this means that the probability of

astronauts getting the certain disease is very low. Lastly, there are the “green risks”, meaning that

there is basically no risks of astronauts getting the certain disease. For example, for the mission

to Mars, they stated that the risk of developing cancer is considered as a “red risk”. “Central

evidence for association between radiation exposure and the development of cancer and other

non-cancer health effects comes from epidemiological studies of humans exposed to radiation”.

The major parts where the cancers may form are the lungs, breast, stomach, colon, and bladder.

Researchers are trying to develop more safe methods for the astronauts. Crews are exposed to

ubiquitous, low dose-rate galactic cosmic rays (GCR) and sporadic solar particle events outside

of the Earth's protective magnetosphere (Patel .

Planning and Designing of Launch

When human beings try to enter into outer space, there is always a launch being previewed to the

whole countries sight. “The fact that Mars has been a terrestrial planet boasting humanity’s

deepest exploration by now makes manned Mars exploration one of the significant trend of the

international aerospace future development, and there are demonstrations of the manned Mars

exploration programmed in varying degree from the United State, Russia, Europe and other

countries and organizations”( Jun-xin 1). The tasks implementations on the launches have to

undergo many steps before testing. There has to be a construction site for the specific experiment
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that is going to be presented. There are many countries that are planning on joining the

contractions of the aircrafts.

Conclusion

Although many people actually want to further explore Mars, other people state that they

should focus on the more important things that are happening on Earth. Nonetheless, the research

concludes with stating the many factors that have to be taken into consideration while exploring

Mars. Even though the astronauts know the risks that taken in place when going outer space,

scientists are trying their best to find the safer routes for them. It is important to understand that

Mars exploration is still being doubted nowadays. Mars One and related initiatives will almost

certainly continue, evolving and morphing as there is more learning about the worlds beyond our

own. As people develop new technology capabilities and expand our presence in near-Earth

space, both of which show no signs of slowing down, people may face moral and ethical

dilemmas in sending humans to Mars far sooner than expected.

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Works Cited

Jun-xin, Zhang, et al. "Planning and Design Method for Heavy Launch Vehicle Launch Site for

Manned Mars Exploration Mission." Journal of Physics: Conference Series, vol. 1639, no.

1, 2020. ProQuest,

https://tamiu.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/planning-

design-method-heavy-launch-vehicle-site/docview/2571020207/se-2,

doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1639/1/012004.

Joseph, Rhawn G., et al. "Oceans, Lakes, and Stromatolites on Mars." Advances in Astronomy,

vol. 2020, 2020. ProQuest,

https://tamiu.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/oceans-

lakes-stromatolites-on-mars/docview/2454178593/se-2,

doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2020/6959532.

Levchenko, Igor, et al. "Mars Colonization: Beyond Getting there." Global Challenges, vol. 3,

no. 1, 2019. ProQuest,

https://tamiu.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/mars-

colonization-beyond-getting-there/docview/2333568097/se-2.

Mancinelli, Rocco L. "Mars Science is Expanding Internationally." International Journal of

Astrobiology, vol. 20, no. 2, 2021, pp. 109-110. ProQuest,

https://tamiu.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/mars-
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science-is-expanding-internationally/docview/2498889958/se-2,

doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1473550421000045.

"Out of this World! NASA's Mars Perseverance Rover on the Red Planet." Vayu Aerospace and

Defence Review, no. 5, 2021, pp. 135-137. ProQuest,

https://tamiu.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/out-this-

world-nasas-mars-perseverance-rover-on/docview/2593667538/se-2?accountid=7081.

Patel, Zarana S., et al. "Red Risks for a Journey to the Red Planet: The Highest Priority Human

Health Risks for a Mission to Mars." NPJ Microgravity, vol. 6, no. 1, 2020, pp. 33.

ProQuest, https://tamiu.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly -

journals/red-risks-journey-planet-highest-priority-human/docview/2469089151/se-

2?accountid=7081, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41526-020-00124-6.

Riddle, Bob. "Back to Mars." Science Scope, vol. 43, no. 9, 2020, pp. 68-74. ProQuest,

https://tamiu.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/back-

mars/docview/2500509682/se-2?accountid=7081.
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