Why we dream of Mars
At the core of what makes us human is the desire to dream, invent and explore. Our modern society has been defined by the fruits of these three passions.
Throughout modern history, the dreamers, inventors and explorers of this world embody our desire to look beyond what is, and embrace what could be. They helped reshape the world around us through new ideas, new inventions, or new worlds for our minds and our senses to explore.
So you may ask… why are these three desires so important?
We dream so that our tomorrow is always better than today.
We invent to turn our dreams into reality.
We explore to find and embrace the new and unexpected which fuels our dreams.
Many rightfully ask… but why Mars?
Mars is not so much a destination as it is the embodiment of a dream to create the technology and the means to expand humanity beyond earth and explore the stars.
As the last 50 years of being stuck in low earth orbit has proven, its far too easy to stay near our home planet where it is relatively safe. The moon may very well prove to be that same kind of trap requiring only evolutionary change not the revolutionary innovation deep space will require.
However, with Mars… the game is different. Mars is distant and everything about going there is hard – but not impossible. Our current technology is almost up to the challenge, but massive innovation is still needed. This makes a Mars mission the perfect dream because, IF we can reach Mars and secure a foothold, we can reach the asteroid belt. IF we can reach the asteroid belt we can reach the outer planets. And on and on finding new dreams, creating new inventions and exploring new worlds.
Mars is a dream that builds upon the accomplishments of previous generations and yet reaches further than ever before. The moon missions gave an entire generation a reason to be look up and dream of something greater, something no one had ever accomplished before. But then we stopped. The dreams became smaller, the momentum died, and slowly the once amazing dream of exploring beyond our planet fell back to the realm of Hollywood.
This is why we dream of Mars. A manned Mars mission is a dream that inspires us to invent, calls us to explore, and is big enough to motivate an entire generation to accomplish more than they previously thought possible. Simply put, it is a worthy dream and one worth pursuing.