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When will we get to Mars?

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As I approach a couple of chronological and career crossroads, I am constantly telling friends that I want to live at least long enough to see a human being walk on Mars.

I won’t go into my personal milestones with this column, but I am preparing for presentation with video for InConJunction in July on how our perceptions of Mars have changed over the years.

InConJunction

InConJunction

The idea was inspired by my wife after going to a panel on traveling to Mars at Dragon Con last year and watching “The Martian.” Earlier this week, I grabbed my Sony HD Handycam and drove to Sharon and Dan Goins’ home to hear what Dan has to say about Mars.

Now retired, Dan Goins taught astronomy ran the planetarium for 27 years at Martinsville High School and taught courses at IUPUI. Goins builds model railroads for people now, but maintains an active interest in astronomy and space travel.

InConJunction is an Independence Day weekend con (the lingo used for convention) with an emphasis on more literary matters and scientific issues related to science fiction and fantasy than most local events.  Goins gave a presentation at InConJunction several years ago so he knows the audience.

War of the Worlds 1

 

“I’m not a big science fiction fan,” Goins said during the video interview on a deck behind his house. “I’m more of a science fact fan.”

 

Like many people while studying space in his youth, he learned that there were canals on Mars. Dan and others found out later, however, that ther

e were no canals, that there had been a mistranslation of one European’s Mars findings.

Growing up in the Cincinnati area, Goins’ high school prediction was that he’d be the first person to walk on Mars. Now, he says, it’s

more likely that he taught one of those walkers on Mars or that their children will be among the early pioneers.

Goins learned that Mars was much like our much smaller moon, barren without life. In recent years, however, our probes to Mars have found there once was water on Mars, that there is water under the surface. Mars’ gravity is lower than that of Earth and as a result has lost much of its atmosphere and great amounts of radiation from the sun bombard the red planet’s surface. The temperature is never above freezing.

“Things are so exciting today,” Goins said. “I’m glad I’m still around to see the changes….

“Somebody alive today will be walking on Mars. They’re already talking about one-way missions to Mars and you’ve got to be really committed to do that.”

Those who travel to Mars will be in space a very long time, which creates a variety of problems, both in terms of materials needed and psychological challenges. Even when the best opportunity to travel to Mars happens approximately every two years, it will still take at least a year to get there.

Whether it will be a multi-national, single or private entrepreneur venture that ultimately takes human beings to Mars remains an unanswered question. But those looking for creatures such as the fictional Marvin the Martian

Marvin the Martian. Photo by Ronald Hawkins.

Marvin the Martian. Photo by Ronald Hawkins.

or other intelligent beings will be greatly disappointed, Goins said. Going to Mars to mine its minerals probably wouldn’t be worth the cost.

So why go to Mars?

“I think the act of discovery, why you want to go there is in-bred in us as a human being,” Goins said. “Whether we’ll ever go-star hopping, the odds are way, way against it because there are certain rules that you can’t go faster than the speed of light but getting to planet (is another matter).

“Will we terra form it? I don’t know, but we could certainly go up there and create a colony if you find the right people to do it.”

Mars and the moon are the only objects in space that humans could get to in a reasonable amount of time, he said.

Unfortunately, neither Dan nor I are likely to go to Mars in this incarnation. The dream, however, of expanding our horizons and going where, as Gene Roddenberry said, no one has gone before are what drives the human spirit.

As for the crossroads I’m  approaching, I will share that in another column.


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