So this weekend I went to the movies with a couple friends to see The Martian. I've always been a fan of space and Matt Damon so why not both? For those of you reading this who don't know what the movie is about, its about an astronaut named Mark Watney (Matt Damon) who gets left on Mars because his crew mates thought he was dead. The reason I want to talk about this movie is because it brings up many questions that humanity might encounter soon in our own struggle to have a manned mission to Mars.
A couple days ago NASA released evidence that they found water on Mars. This is a very important discovery for not just the future of NASA's space program but for how life in the universe began. I believe that this event coinciding with release of The Martian are going to push the prospect of a manned mission to Mars to the forefront of many peoples minds. With this prospect comes a lot of ethical questions that we might not have an answer to so we should think about them now to prepare for the future.
The technology to get humans to Mars might not be exactly ready but I do believe that I will be alive for the first manned mission. With that being said I expect there to be some strict restrictions on what they can and can't do on this flight because of the limited technology that the first attempt will have. For example, the flight path will be strict and going off course is pretty much a no go. However, if something terrible happens, like Mark Watney getting stranded on Mars, there would be some ethical issues that rise when planning his rescue...if we plan a rescue. Is it worth it to try and save Watney? Would this endanger other astronauts? Would the cost be too high to save a man stranded on Mars when there are people dying of starvation on Earth?
I think a lot of these questions are hard to answer because while the astronauts no that their lives are on the line, they were chosen because they are some of the smartest people on the planet. Does that make their lives more important than others? Is the cost of trying to go to Mars in the first place too expensive?
Personally, I think space is awesome. I want us to continue to develop new technologies to get us in space faster but I do understand that it shouldn't be a number one priority, at least not yet. We know that we are killing the planet and will have to go and colonize another planet but that is most likely a good amount of time away still. Does that mean that we can drop all the problems that are happening in our world now? Definitely not. However, it does bring up an issue of problem management. I think that the problems on Earth should definitely be a priority but that doesn't mean we can make better space ships on the side. It's human nature for us to want our species to survive and that won't happen in the long run if we can only make it to the moon.
I'm glad there is a large amount of time for the brightest minds of Earth to figure out these ethical problems but I'm also glad that I'm not the one deciding the outcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment