In making the case for sending humans to explore Mars in the near future. President Bush has proposed a grand multi-billion dollar long-term project. A project, to this author, is well worth the money. To start off, I will list off a few of my reasons that I will describe more specifically later in this article. First of all, the price tag of 170 billion dollars could easily be reduced by extensive research of more energy and cost efficient technology in the 26 years to come before we actually launch. Second, the possible benefit of spin-off (The transfer of new NASA technology to U.S. consumers) is too great to ignore. The new technology that will be developed from the research for the Mars trip and the new technology that could develop from researching the physics of Mars or finding new resources on Mars will eventually be passed on to the average citizen.
Mars makes a showing
English: Artist's rendering of a Mars Exploration ...
Copied from Image:MarsTransitionV.jpg: "..."My final reason is that exploring new territories is human nature. Since the dawn of time, Man has discovered and conquered strange new frontiers and took full advantage of the new area. By researching on Mars and in Mars physics, we could set the rudimentary foundation of possibly in the distant future terraforming Mars for human inhabitance. For all of these reasons I urge you to support Bush's plan for Mars exploration.
Starting with my first reason of the possible reducing of the price tag, as I said before, can be easily accomplished. NASA's prediction of the total spending that will take place for the Mars trip is exactly what they said it was, a prediction. This prediction can be reduced by spending a portion of that money to research more energy and cost efficient propulsion engines and fuel. Such propulsion engines are, conveniently, already in development, reducing...