Funding Mars Exploration

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Funding Mars Exploration

• Can We Afford It?

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Poverty
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Homelessness
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Unemployment
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Gas Prices
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Where Is Our Time and Money Going?

• America is spending billions of dollars exploring
  Mars.
• Thousands of man-hours have been put forth for
  this project.
• Is this expense worth it?

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Should We Continue the Mars Exploration Program?

• In order to determine if exploration is worth
  the manpower or cost, we will consider the
  following questions
• What explorations have been conducted?
• What is the cost?
• What have we learned and what do we hope to
  learn?
• What is the effect on Floridas economy and job
  market?

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Mars Exploration and Cost
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Summary of Exploration and Cost

• We see a mission failure rate of 50, often for
  unknown reasons, at a cost of 4.2 billion dollars
  coupled with a falling need for personnel in the
  job market as evidence that we should not support
  continued missions to Mars.

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What Have We Learned?

• Mars is the fourth planet from the sun, our
  neighboring planet.
• It has a similar amount of land mass to Earth.
• The length of a day on Mars is similar to Earth,
  while a year is twice as long.

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What Have We Learned?
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What Have We Learned?

• The temperature differences on both planets are
  drastic (average temperature is -67 F on Mars).
• There is no atmosphere on Mars.
• The weather patterns on Mars are severe at times
  (wind storms, avalanches, etc.)
• There is evidence of water having once been on
  Mars, but none found to date.
• No life has been found on Mars.

What have we learned that is of any benefit?
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What Do We Hope To Learn?

• According to scientists at NASA, future Mars
  explorations are aimed at learning
• How the planets formed
• Composition differences/similarities
• Whether Mars has ever/could ever sustain life
• Whether Earth could ever evolve into the type of
  planet that Mars has become?

Will finding answers to these questions really
help us as humans on this planet?
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Summary of What Weve Learned or Hope to Learn

• With initial explorations proving that there is
  no life, no way to support human life, and no
  water to support agriculture, we conclude that
  exploring Mars is not producing knowledge or
  opportunities that benefit Earth.
• While scientific discovery is a worthy pursuit,
  using our science resources here on Earth to feed
  the hungry and cure disease has much greater
  benefit to mankind.

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What Does This Say About Us?

• "Our Mars program is the envy of the world."
• Alan Stern, associate administrator of NASA's
  Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

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Is it really?
Do these children envy our Mars program?
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Conclusion

• We have outlined the costs and the lack of
  benefits that we feel make a compelling case for
  not supporting future missions to Mars.
• Learning about our nearest planet neighbor may be
  interesting, but our own planets problems and
  needs are so great, our resources should be aimed
  there.

Lets be the envy of the world by solving
problems here on Earth
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Resources

• Mars Exploration NASA
• http//mars.jpl.nasa.gov/
• Mars Rover Mission NASA
• http//marsrover.nasa.gov/home/index.html
• Timeline of Mars Exploration
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploration_of_MarsT
  imeline_of_Mars_exploration
• Budget for Mars Exploration - NASA
• www.nasa.gov/pdf/1991main_mars.pdf

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Resources, cont.

• Mars Exploration Rover Mission, Press Release,
  February 2008 NASA
• http//marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressrelea
  ses/20080215a.html
• Future Missions NASA
• http//mars.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/future/futureMis
  sions.html
• Floridas Economy and the Space Program
• http//www.floridatrend.com/data_article.asp?cName
  Florida20DatarNameEconomic20YearbookwhatID2
  aID42460518.5455171.601354.4549214.4908078.528a
  ID246249
• Cost of Mars Science Lab Aviation Week
• http//www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_chann
  el.jsp?channelspaceidnews/mars022108.xml