Reaching Mars with the Help of International Cooperation
On July 20, 1969,
Neil Armstrong lands on the moon. Armstrong is an American astronaut who is aiding the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in their attempt to reach space and collect information from it. He is accompanied by fellow astronauts, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins on the Apollo 11. This journey is a long, difficult one, but Mission Control stays with them until the very end. NASA has been awaiting this moment for years and the public of the United States has taken this on as a national cause. Armstrong and his team are not representing themselves on this mission, but rather all of America.
Once they get close to the moon’s surface, it is time to land. They carefully mobilize all resources to safely land on the moon’s surface and Armstrong exits the vehicle, and becomes the first person to ever walk on the moon. He celebrates the feat along with Mission Control and shares words to highlight that this landing not only changed American history, but space exploration forever. He acknowledges this significances and says, “that’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” Armstrong’s walk represented the first time any country reached the moon, and although for him it may have been just a few steps, it was a rather large stride in the domain of space exploration. Now, more than 40 years laters, researchers and explorers want history to repeat itself with having a human reach Mars (Dunbar, NASA.com). However, their approaches, along with those of investors and individual countries, to getting there need to be modified. While many investors and singular countries would believe that they can individually support the journey to Mars, the most essential component to one day reaching it is actually international cooperation, because it will allow resources and higher level reasoning to be used effectively to achieve such a goal. This cooperation was not a part of space exploration in the past, however, as shown through the race to the moon in the 1950s.
Reaching the moon was actually a part of a bigger competition, known as the Space Race, between the United States and the Soviet Union to gain dominance of space. Although sources dispute who actually won this race, it is certain that it created animosity and fueled a rivalry between the two countries to emerge as a space superpower. Both countries tried to gain advantages over the other in regards to technology and science. There were secret rocket launches as well as spy missions as each country tried to undermine the other’s plans. This was also exacerbated by the tensions of the Cold War, which pitted the United States and Russia against each other. Once Russia began to make progress with space exploration, United States would follow. It was a constant chain reaction that took over the political realms of both countries, and was perpetuated through the media and propaganda. After years of mobilizing resources, spending millions of dollars, and spying on the competition, both countries eventually made some progress. Russia finally had their first launch into space in 1957. In a response, the United States worked hard to outmaneuver them in the next step, and this lead to Neil Armstrong’s historic moon landing in 1969. This Space Race changed the relationship of these countries forever, as it affected them politically, economically, and socially. It also set up space to become a place to conquer, a place to race to reach. This has now affected the way countries and explorers see the exploration of Mars, as a race (Sagdeev and Eisenhower, NASA.com). However, if it remains this way, then it will take many more years for humans to even reach Mars and more money will be wasted. If countries continue to compete as they did in the Space Race, there is a chance resources will be wasted in trying to compete that the greater goal of reaching Mars will be incomplete.
Having a human reach Mars has become more of a goal in recent years for the space superpowers, such as United States, Russia, and China. Each country has implemented plans and strategies to one day fulfill this goal on their to become the sole superpower. Recently, private agencies and wealthy individuals, have decided to step into this industry as well. They have made strides and believe themselves to be more likely to one day reach Mars, especially in comparison to all these countries, which will lose the goal while trying to outmaneuver the competitors. This is completely understandable, but the sentiment can also be placed on these agencies and individuals, who work alone. If any of these entities, whether it be countries or individuals such as billionaire investors try to reach Mars alone, no human will ever get there. The idea of international cooperation has come up many times in regards to space, but most countries overlook it, because winning the race would give them superiority and dominance. As for the investors and individuals, they see this more as an economic competition, and although they have the means, they lack the reasoning to understand the implications of going to Mars.
According to NASA, Mars is about 140 million miles away from Earth, making it significantly farther than the moon. The farther it is, the more resources it will require. These resources are not all possessed by one country, and thus international cooperation is perhaps the only way these resources fulfillments can be met. International cooperation occurs when countries work together with actions and resources to not only meet their own needs and strategies, but also contribute to a greater goal. It has been manifested in space exploration for many years now, especially with the International Space Station (ISS). The ISS program began in 1993 as a way for countries such as the United States, Russia, and Japan to collaborate. The Station itself is a means by which spacecrafts of these countries can enter space and also acts as an international hub of research for these countries. NASA felt that it was a step towards fostering international cooperation, and despite the large costs it has, the benefits are numerous. Many countries helped form this program and now the knowledge it brings not only untites the countries, but also immensely benefits them. This Station, however, can only run if all the countries support it financially (Achenbach, WashingtonPost.com). The international cooperation that it spurred, has carried on into the 21st century. In Mars to the Moon, Erik Seedhouse mentions, “People pointed to the ISS model of cooperation and suggested that, with that same teamwork and commitment, NASA, together with the Canadian Space Agency, the Russian Space Agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and ESA, could pull off a return to the Moon” (49). It is evident now that they believe the success of the International Space Station can be attributed to this cooperation, and thus it should be continued to ensure further success. Seedhouse feels that going to the moon again is something countries should look at even before reaching Mars, and so if the countries can work to do that first, then eventually they will be strong enough together to reach Mars. This strength will come from combining research, strategies, resources, and eliminating difficulties that the countries could not solve on their own.
Many countries have been working for the last few years to send people to Mars, such as the United States, Russia, China, India, and parts of Europe. Each place has its own unique plan and timeline, but they each want to be the first country to have humans walk on Mars. Some have begun to call this the beginning of a new Space Race. In the past, Russia was seen as one of the superpowers of space, but now all eyes are on the United States and China to reach Mars the fastest. This “race” has not only affected the economies of these countries, but their political conditions as well. The United States has spent more than $40 billion dollars in pursuit of strategies outlined by the “Constellation Program”, which includes, “the construction of a new space transportation architecture, habitats and bases for Moon and eventually for Mars” (P. Ehrenfreund et al. 247). It would also include the implementation of new technology such as robots rovers and a potential pipeline to shorten space travel. The money is thus seen as an investment to prepare for reaching Mars in 2030, which President Barack Obama believes to be “vital to the next chapter of America’s story in space.” Reaching Mars has also become very politically motivated for the United States, because its history of space dominance needs to carry on (Obama, CNN.com). China, on the other hand, was never considered to be a space superpower. Recently, they have began spending closer to $6 billion dollars on space exploration to build revolutionary technology such as “hack proof” quantum satellites, space ports, the world’s largest radio telescope, and the world’s fastest supercomputers. Each of these will immensely aid in space exploration, providing key pieces of information for astronauts and researchers to analyze and build better strategies (Clark, TheGuardian.com). So far, as a result, China has had more successful space launches than the United States, in the past few years. According to China’s president, Xi Jinping, this is all a part of accelerating China’s space program to not only surpass the other countries, but also have successful missions to the moon and Mars (Baculinao, NBCNews.com). Other analysts are beginning to think that his wishes are going to come true.
The other countries and groups, such as Russia, specific countries in Europe, and India have also made separate strides towards increasing space exploration to soon reach Mars, but have been comparatively slower than the US and China. The Russian government is deeply involved in all of Russia’s space endeavors, especially with the creation of their ten year plan that implements new technologies and manages the International Space Station. They have had fewer space launches compared to the United States and China, but are determined to reach Mars in 2018, with the help of nuclear power units (Martin, Express.co.uk). This use of nuclear power is unique to Russia, and if it does work, will shorten the time of space travel extraordinarily. Until then, Russia will continue launches and facilitating the International Space Station for its own gain. Compared to Russia, European countries are much smaller and so some combined to form the European Space Agency, which has made attempts to land a spacecraft on Mars. Only the United States and Russia have successfully been able to land something on the surface so far. Unfortunately, their most recent attempt failed after losing contact with the probe, which ultimately crashed. These countries have resources, but lack essential strategies to facilitate a plan (Bodner, TheMoscowTimes.com). India, is the newest of these countries to consider space exploration. Although it is too early for it to be in the running to become a space superpower, India has been able to send an operational mission to Mars. They spent considerably less money and less time in comparison to the other countries in the “race” by reducing complexity of technology and using cheaper labor and parts only from India (Amos, BBC.com). This technique has given them a new lens to see space travel and the successful mission has caused President Narendra Modi to look into expanding their space program altogether (Kalra, Reuter.com). They may not reach Mars as quickly as the other countries believe to do, but they are on the road there.
Each country has a different plan in place to reach Mars, with different technology and strategies, but they are all trying to race the others. This race will negatively affect the goal of reaching Mars, as competition will minimize communication. This lack of communication will then give rise to disasters as well as political tension, as it did in the Space Race in the mid-1900s. The competition would also fuel secrecy regarding technology and unwillingness to help for the greater good or a collective purpose. For example, the recent crash of the European space lander was due to a space glitch. This space lander, which was done in collaboration with Europe and Russia, was turned down by NASA, a large contributor to space travel technology (Parnell, Forbes.com). Many would argue that such a glitch would not have arisen had NASA helped out in the first place. There have also been instances of collisions of satellites because countries fail to communicate about the sustainable use of space. Not only does this result in a waste of money and time, but also pollutes space and causes a great loss of vital information for the future of space travel. If this continues with each country working separately, it is only a matter of time before there are more collisions and more glitches that could have been prevented otherwise. Thus, this will hinder all efforts to reaching Mars, which means that the only way to effectively have humans land on Mars is by employing international cooperation.
Countries such as the United States, China, Russia (and the specific European countries), and India, must work together to send people to Mars. They each have separate goals and timelines, but by utilizing international cooperation, they will be able to accomplish all of that and more, without losing the main focus of having a human walk on Mars in a matter of years. International cooperation has been in use for some time now with other space endeavors, such as the International Space Station, which was mentioned earlier, as well as various joint rocket launches. This cooperation will lead to collaboration among the superpowers and countries newer to space exploration, as well as allow more resources to be effectively used. This is also the view of Charles Bolden, a NASA administrator, who believes that the future of Mars exploration lies in the concept of an “international coalition” (Poladian, Ibtimes.com). The newest technologies of China and Russia can be combined with the special expertise and large budget of the United States. This can be aided by the low-cost measures of India, as well as mediation by countries in Europe. There will be minimal to no political tension or competition, because all of the people on Earth will be working together towards one goal. All resources will be mobilized and all politicians will work together to ensure this goal is fulfilled. Researchers also believe that international cooperation will allow for “improving capability, sharing costs, building common interests and increasing the total level of available resources, eliminating the duplication of efforts, and improving international relationships ” (P. Ehrenfreund et al. 247). These countries have been wasting money all trying to do the same thing, so by combining projects, they will now be able to hone efforts to one specific plan. This plan will not favor any specific country, but upon its success, every country involved will be a part of the accomplishment.
Many individuals are also beginning to realize that singular countries will not be able to reach Mars on their own. However, instead of seeing that international cooperation is the key, these individuals believe that they should take it upon themselves to conquest Mars. Some of these prominent individuals are Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Branson. Each of them is a billionaire entrepreneur with the the financial ability and connections to work with private companies to build and launch vehicles into space. They see this as a way to engage in a new industry and help create more privatization for space travel, which as of now, is only controlled by countries and their governments. Unfortunately, these individuals have taken it upon themselves to race to reach space, and this has resulted in additional competition. Regarding this competition, one author, Bill Robertson writes, “[it] isn’t from some other country but from the robust private spaceflight industry — firms like SpaceX, Blue Origin…” (Digitaltrends.com). These billionaires are using private companies to back up the race, and are essentially making space exploration an economic activity, that will dramatically affect countries who are working towards Mars, along with patrons of exploration. Both Musk and Bezos want to capitalize on the idea of having people stay and eventually work on Mars. For example, Musk wants humans to become be a “multi-planet species” and Bezos wants them to be a “space faring civilization”. These are ambitious goals, but they take away from the purpose of space exploration itself, which is to gain knowledge about the outside world, and hinders any opportunity of countries working together to effectively have humans reach Mars. People such as Musk and Bezos believe that countries cannot complete such a feat, but they have failed to realize that international cooperation is a much more viable option.
These individuals and companies may believe that they have the economic means to build and gather resources to reach Mars, but they are wasting time for themselves and their countries. Individuals such as Musk and Bezos, are acting as investors, and this project is just their next economic venture. They fail to regard its scientific value, and will go on to overlook proper resource management, communication tactics, and implementation of proper technology. They will only look at this from their own best interests, which is to create an economic outlet, and be the first ones to do so. Instead, if they used their billions of dollars, private companies, and well-crafted strategies to help assist Mars exploration initiatives in their own countries and governments, there would be a lot more progress and a stronger, collective effort (Dillow, Fortune.com). This would push for more communication within the country and then these individuals could help their countries coordinate with other countries to ensure that all necessities are being fulfilled. As mentioned earlier, having humans go to Mars will require many resources, including money and time. Although it may seem cost-effective for all countries, if only specific billionaires work towards Mars, in reality it is only undermining the essential cooperation and further advancement. Continuing to make this a race among individuals or countries will only hinder the timeline of reaching Mars, as well as waste resources that can be of immense benefit when combined together.
People of the world have set their eyes on Mars, hoping to reach it in the next decade or so. This is potentially an attainable goal, assuming that proper technology is created, efficient strategies are developed, and countries work together. International cooperation is the only means by which countries will combine resources and programs to effectively send humans to Mars. Although some believe that individual countries or even individuals can send people to Mars, the only way to be certain that it occurs soon, is to work together. No person or country alone will actually be able to take that giant leap on Mars “for mankind” (as Armstrong did) especially because they are only representing one singular entity. Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon was as he said, “a giant leap for mankind” and the first walk on Mars should be just that. Mankind is every country and every person, and by countries and billionaires racing to be the first ones on Mars, they are not only taking away from the experience, but also adding variables that will hinder the journey.
Countries of the world are now beginning to understand this. Recently, on November 24, 2016. Over 100 individuals representing countries around the world met at the first annual High Level Forum on Space as a Driver for Socio-economic Sustainable Development. This monumental event served to highlight ways for countries to be more sustainable when exploring space and according to the UN News Centre, “affirmed the need for stronger international cooperation and dialogue [regarding global space initiatives].” Thus, this forum is now one of the many first steps in the right direction towards humans walking on Mars. (“Space Community”, UN.org). Next, models of cooperation must be created and developed, especially regarding the economics, accessibility, and politics of exploration. Once all countries have acknowledged the need for international cooperation and developed such models through future forums, humans will be on track to reach Mars in the next decade or so. As humans continue to expand their horizons to explore different parts of the universe, it is important for everyone to communicate properly. International cooperation is the epitome of this proper communication and so with it, the human race will go very far in this exploratory journey. It does not have to end at Mars, and as years and decades pass, mankind will move on to something else in the universe, and hopefully by then, all countries and individuals will be working together towards these greater goals.