By Kate Banner
Elon Musk has made the daring vow to put man on Mars before the curtain falls on this decade. Ignoring his previous estimates, the stars appear to be aligning this time. In a post-Covid world, with Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson recently completing their commercial flight upward, the old fantasy of interplanetary exploration can no longer be dismissed as science fiction. Do I think it will be SpaceX to achieve what will be another monumental ‘leap for mankind’? Less likely now. If I were a cosmic bookie, my pockets would be worried about an unexpected Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) surprise, or worse, something from the Russian Roscosmos. What remains certain is that we are entering a new space race with a larger competition and an even larger audience. This only begs the question: is the Red Planet worth it?
Logistics first. Due to the opposing orbital periods of Earth and Mars, and the intricacies of interplanetary exploration, the launch window occurs once every 26 months. This means, essentially, if we want to go soon, then we better start planning. Until recently, Russia and the United States dominated the finite discoveries of the previous decade, but with around 72 countries now embarking upon space programmes, the landscape is very different. In 2003, the CNSA made history by sending the first taikonaut into space — it was just the third country to do so at the time. While a monumental achievement, it dims compared to NASA’s mission 34 years prior. In 2016, two taikonauts spent a month living on the Tiangong-2, the Chinese low-orbit space station. Again, it is incredible, but the technology hardly appears ground-breaking, given that NASA did the same 16 years earlier. It wasn’t until 2019 that China breached the unthinkable and landed on the far side of the moon, something never done before, not even by NASA. Here, China firmly established itself as a forefront player in this game of space domination.
However, this space race transcends far beyond the ability of taikonauts, cosmonauts, and astronauts. For example, we are currently witnessing the success stories of countries like India, which launched a space probe to orbit Mars in 2013, and the United Arab Emirates, which achieved the same in 2020. What seems to water down all hopes and dreams of collective international space exploration is the exponential inclusion of private companies. Capitalism has begun to dominate, so much that companies now stand as the frontrunners for a premier landing on Mars ahead of or in partnership with state organisations. SpaceX has already launched an astounding 62 missions in 2023, outdoing more than any other company and any country. What flag would they lay on the red craters of Mars?
As the ambition to walk on Mars and establish global and political power rises amongst our leaders, it is necessary that we reflect on the lessons previous missions of colonisation offer us. The war in Ukraine has disbanded all relationships between Russia’s work on the European Space Station, and as China is declared a threat by the United States, our decade of global space cooperation is seen to be quickly left floating just like us, in the cosmic space-time of the distant past. I’m not suggesting that this decade will see colonisation by new Martian aliens, but rather asking the question: what happens when a flag (corporate or state) is put firmly on the Red Planet’s surface? We can only respond that we have no clue, and that’s the scary part. We don’t know what space wars might occur if China claimed Mars as theirs, or worse, if SpaceX asserted authority over a newly renamed MuskLand.
We should take a step back. Billions must be pumped into technological research to land humans on Mars. Money currently spent on the fantasy of new life could be spent on improving the ones which already exist here on Earth. We are entering years of record-breaking heat, increased extinction of animal species, and the global concentration of poverty. Mars is dry and rocky, with a carbon dioxide-based atmosphere. Though it does not seem appealing, as the urgency of the space race confirms: it is considered habitable. However, Earth already has an abundance of oxygen and fresh flowing rivers; compared to Mars, it’s heaven. I think it’s fundamentally wrong not to have space programmes or a sense of curiosity as to what is beyond our earthly realm, but what I think is worse is the propaganda scheme that Mars has become. Even though human missions to Mars are now a reality, they will not act as some paradise or safety net from the harm humanity has inflicted upon Earth. Unfortunately, now we appear to have forgotten the importance of preserving the world which enabled this reality in the first place.
