Large Fierce Mammal

An artist’s rendering shows the Orion spacecraft docked to the International Space Station. (NASA via CBC News)

While the first landing on the surface of the Moon was motivated by international rivalries and political agendas, in its development, the fallout of space exploration has given us a host of technologies we take for granted and rely on every day. It was beneficial to society at large, and its legacy incalculable. Mars One, on the other hand, is predicated on finding novel and innovative ways to use existing, off the shelf technologies to permit Human life to be where Nature has already decided it shouldn’t. This instead of bringing the same commitment to bear on solving the problem inexorable growth and voracious consumption has become to the Earth and all Her children, Man included.

I’m staying here to do what I can do, ever striving to get closer to the Earth, not further away. ~ The Ecology of Space Exploration

The excerpt above is from my article posted here on 14 January 2013, and those words returned to the forefront of my mind while reading last week’s CBC News piece, Orion spacecraft helps NASA prepare for future Mars journey. More specifically, I was pleased to find my sentiments echoed in a related article linked from the CBC item, written last June by Quirks and Quarks host Bob MacDonald. Titled Let’s go to Mars, but make sure it’s for the right reasons, Mr. MacDonald begins:

A new report from the US National Research Council on Spaceflight recommends a more realistic approach to sending humans to  Mars, including the rationale that going there, “ensures the survival of the human species through off-Earth settlement.”

That is the last reason we should explore other worlds.

And closes with these gems of ecological right mindedness:

The biggest lesson we have learned by going to other worlds is how rare the Earth is. From the first images of the blue marble taken by Apollo astronauts from the far side of the moon, to the pale blue dot seen from the far side of the solar system, our little planet is turning out to be the only oasis we know of in a vast, hostile universe.

All the other planets in our solar system, plus the nearly 1000 discovered around other stars, are all interesting, but deadly. When we do find another Earth equivalent somewhere out there, it will be so far away it will be unreachable.

So, sure, let’s go to Mars. In fact, I will volunteer to make the first boot prints in the red soil. But like any traveller in a strange new place, I will think about what I left behind and be happy to return home.

Let’s go to other worlds to discover the nature of planets, so we can appreciate our own and learn better ways to protect it. Let’s not use Mars as a reason to think of the Earth as disposable.

Amen Brother.