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mars is the fourth planet from the sun
and the second
smallest planet in the solar system
being only larger than mercury
like earth mars has seasons polar ice
caps
volcanoes canyons and weather
it has a very thin atmosphere made of
carbon dioxide
nitrogen and argon there are signs of
ancient floods on mars
but now water mostly exists in icy dirt
and thin clouds
mars has been explored by unmanned
spacecraft
mariner 4 launched by nasa on the 28th
of november 1964
was the first spacecraft to visit mars
making its closest approach to the
planet on the 15th of july 1965.
in november 2015 administrator bolden of
nasa reaffirmed the goal of sending
humans to mars
he laid out 2030 as the date of a crude
surface landing
and noted that planned 2020 mars rover
would support the human mission
reasons for colonizing mars include pure
curiosity
the potential for humans to provide more
in-depth
observational research than unmanned
rovers economic interest in its
resources
and the possibility that the settlement
of other planets could decrease the
likelihood of human extinction
going to mars is an obvious next step so
why mars at an average distance of 140
million miles
mars is one of earth's closest habitable
neighbors
mars is about half again as far from the
sun as earth as so it still has decent
sunlight
it is a little cold but we can warm it
up
its atmosphere is primarily co2 with
some nitrogen and argon and a few other
trace elements which means that we can
grow
plants on mars just by compressing the
atmosphere
gravity on mars is about 38 of that of
earth
so you would be able to lift heavy
things and bound around
furthermore the day is remarkably close
to that of earth
musk founded the space transport company
spacex to help make this happen
elon musk plans to send a spacex rocket
to mars
with cargo only by 2022 according to the
spacex website
a second mission which would take more
cargo and crew
is targeted for 2024 musk has also said
he'll send a million people to mars by
2050
so let's see what are the benefits of
visiting mars
number one ensuring the survival of our
species
the only home that humans have ever
known is earth
but history shows us that surviving as a
species on this tiny blue dot in the
vacuum of space is tough and by no means
guaranteed
the dinosaurs are a classic example they
roamed the earth for 165 million years
but the only trace of them today are
their fossilized remains
a colossal asteroid wiped them out
number two
discovering life on mars during an
episode of star talk radio in march
planetary society ceo bill nye said that
humanity should focus on sending humans
instead of robots to
mars because humans can make discoveries
ten thousand times faster than the
spacecraft explorers we have today
number three improving the quality of
life on earth
only by pushing mankind to its limits to
the bottoms of the ocean and into space
we make discoveries in science and
technology that can be adapted to
improve life on earth
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