Is Going To Mars Important? - Page 2

We have countries spending millions of dollars on projects related to life on Mars and sending satellite to Mars. Is it worth spending this much money on Mars project? What if they find out there IS a life on Mars? They will probably shift people from Earth there?

What do you guys think! Is it more important to invest that big money in issues related to Earth (healthcare, enviornment, public welfare, etc. etc.) or it is worth spending money to find out more about Mars. It is fascnicating, but is it worth it?

spending money on mars is stupid and pointless...that mone should be spend on things we need to make EARTH a good place

Im ready to go there!!!😃😉😆 I love reading abt the developments regarding those explorations!! I wanted to b a cosmonaut😳... but it seems like😔.. but i can still do it in my dreams😉...

Ok ok .. im serious now😊.. I can't say that Its worthless to spend money on explorations... then why people spend so much money on Ancient egypt explorations.. it is not directly helpful to humans😉.. But there is always money involved in such projects.. yeah i admitt: Space projects are very very costly! but they provide us knowledge abt the universe we r living in like we need to know abt our planet-earth... Its not just abt finding a life on Mars or some other place its more abt knowledge and progress in that particular sector, its research.. so i don't see money being totally wasted..

Abt people shifting to Mars.. Frankly speaking now we don't have soooooooo much fuel on earth to do the honours!!!😆😆 We can hardly fulfil our energy needs plus it will increase tremendous pollution..so it is a wastage of time energy and money to do that for everyone... only a few people can live there( If they want to!) and they need a constant supply of oxygen.. food.. water .. many other things ... so a LONG-Term life is pretty difficult even for few people..

Ok... now spending the money on other sectors like health, law and order, environment, etc... So here comes economics, the opportunity cost: Is it better to invest on exploration or other issues?? I basically think that Exploration/ research is as important as progress in other sectors.. If that has not been the case then we won't b sitting on the internet- after all it is the result of certain research where money was invested! Similarly why we build monuments? Why we build museums? Its abt a gain in the Long-term, for the future generations... not just short term!! 😉

It's important to know about what's around us? However, it's equally important to take care of common people first. While many people live on streets and might not eat three meals a day, we are spending millions or trillions on space programs. Developed countries can still afford to do it, but I think developing countries should established themselves first.
On the other day I was watching discovery channel. Scientist are working on a huge airplane which can carry 500,000 people. It's a one way ticket to Mars..ofcourse algae and plants will go first so we can make Mars like earth. They are making this plane because if something happens to earth, we have another planet to spread our seeds. Like I said it's a one way ticket, so you won't be coming back. Other plan is to find a galaxy like ours and hopefully that galaxy contains earth too. Now ride to another galaxy is a bit tricky. Say if you decide to go, your great great great great grand children will reach there. The plane to another galaxy will have everything you want..trees, universities, coffee shops, swimming pool, forests, movie theaters, fake sun and moon, movie industries, and people from all professions.

Just because
The Roman god named Mars was actually first associated with agriculture before becoming linked to the Greek god Ares the god of war.

😆 😆 I think its a waste of money, though its pretty cool at the same time! Its not going to be that easy to send people to Mars, and whats the possibitly they are going to get there safely, and if the life in Mars is going to work out. 😕 And you're right, we need to spend more money of the atmosphere around this earth rather then Mars. 😕 
Nice topic 👏 Edited by marvelous.malks - 17 years ago

Why not?
Humans are meant to explore the surroundings. We are very curious beings.

I would not say that it is worthless or a waste of money. If anything, it could one day be helpful to us in some way in distant future.

Just think about it. For example, we may find a new life-form on mars, although quite unlikely. Secretions from this life-form may have anti-viral or anti-bacterial properties. Wouldn't that be a great medical discovery?

The government wastes money doing other stupid things. (don't ask what stupid things!). Why not stop that?

There are always priorities in which govtrnment spend money. Imporatnt question is, does scrapping Mars Expedetion project guarantee funding available for healthcare, environment etc.? Australia spends zero doller on Mars Space projects. USA spends Billions. Does people 'down under have better life style than US because of that? I doubt it. IF US abandone its Mars project, would it give that moeny to starving people of Africa? I doubt it. If they do then it's definetly worth cutting down Mars project.

Sowmyaa di.. allocation of money for a particular project is done on the basis of "Importance of the project" i.e. as u mentioned: Priorities .. The space projects (Im widening the term😉) initially were started by USSR(Russia)... At that time people also thought it as a waste of money, but look today: Man went to space, Landed on the moon and explored the secrets of the universe...

Look at VOYAGER 2.. It was a huge project in which 2 satellites were sent into space to travel through the solar system... now voyager 2 has crossed the solar system's boundary line and it is found that there is 10th planet in this solar system which we werent able to see via telescopes!!!!😲😃

Every discovery, YES every discovery or invention requires research and research needs money..Plus the discovery/invention of anything doesn't propose its use at that time and Human beings find out that through constant effort i.e. research ....For example, internet invention was a MEGA project... the computers were pretty costly... but today.. see for urself... NObody literally NOBODY ever thought that internet would b used sooo frequently by future generations as initially it was used only by the military for was purposes..But look at us!!!!😃😃...

Now Space Exploration is not so easy that u do the same as Edison did: Lock urself in a small room and do the experiments..eventually land up lighting a bulb!!😆😆😆.. They require heavy amounts of money.. and who knows what we get by them..may be a cure for AIDS virus.. may be anti-bacterial substances like indiaforums1234 said!! it can be anything !! Far from our imaginations and probably a GREAT asset for our future generations!!😃😉WHO KNOWS 😉

Ok now ur question of shifting money to other sectors... well ... All the countries have continuously been doing that for so many years... and the annual budgets are increasing every time and sectors like social security,education, health, environment, housing schemes, etc. have got huge amounts of money never allocated b4... If we can't see development in these sectors, it is not due to the AMOUNTS of money, it is due to INADEQUATE UTILIZATION of resources...

In short, it is the responsibility of the government to fully utilize and implement the plans for the betterment of its people...but it is not necessary to at the expense of scraping space projects which open our doors to universe knowledge..

I completely agree with Maryam.

The root of space exploration is research and without research, there would be no PhDs and clearly no Universities.

If we feel that money should be spent on other things, then archeaology, experiments in science, etc. which cost millions of dollars, should also be stopped.