Race to the Red Planet—And Why Mars Matters

 

by Cyndee Miller

Like most kids, I was obsessed with space. The thought of wandering the solar system blew my wee little mind. That sense of sheer wonderment hasn’t diminished—I’m a space geek for life. And there’s certainly been plenty to pique our interest. Look no further than PMI’s 2020 top 10 list for Most Influential Projects in space. And now there’s a new space race among the earthlings. Last July, Earth and Mars aligned at their closest points in two years—and space agencies around the world jumped at the chance to explore the Red Planet. Following successful launches last July, spacecrafts from China, the United Arab Emirates and the United States are all now officially checking out Earth’s closest neighbor. Another mission, ExoMars by the European Space Agency and Russia’s Roscosmos, aimed to join the action but ran into delays and must now wait for the next opportune planetary alignment in 2022.

Following seven or so months of travel, the UAE’s first interplanetary spacecraft, Hope, and China’s Tianwen-1 were already exploring the Marian orbit by mid-February—and sending back amazing pictures of volcanoes and other features.  And so it was that last Thursday I found myself cranking Bowie’s Life on Mars? and watching NASA’s Perseverance make its amazing touchdown. Entry, descent and landing is often dubbed the “seven minutes of terror” because of the precision required—and Perseverance was headed to “the most challenging Martian terrain ever targeted,” according to NASA. But the rover landed—and now even has its own Twitter feed. (Hobbies: Photography, collecting rocks, off-roading.) China’s space agency plans to place its lander and rover later this year.

Some might question the wisdom of investing all these dollars, dirham, euros and yuan into such an esoteric pursuit, especially in the middle of a pandemic and one of the worst economic meltdowns of the past century. NASA alone estimates it spent roughly US$2.4 billion to build and launch Perseverance.

It’s a fair question, although awfully short-sighted. And it also overlooks all the benefits space exploration can bring to life here on good old Earth.

NASA estimates more than 1,600 innovations grew out of the Apollo space program—changing the trajectory on everything from mattresses to mobile phone cameras. (There’s a reason it came in at number 3 on PMI’s list of Most Influential Projects of the past 50 years.) And the Mars program is no slouch, either. Just one example: Autonomous navigation on the planet requires complex neural networks and deep learning algorithms—tech the space agency says can also be used here on Earth in cars, drones and toys.

And it doesn’t stop there. Along with its trip to Mars, NASA is ready to embark on the first foray into extraterrestrial construction, joining forces with U.S. construction tech firm Icon, U.S. startup SEArch+  and Danish architecture hotshots Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). The goal for Project Olympus is to develop a space-based construction system for creating small cities—complete with landing pads, habitats and roads—on the moon and eventually Mars. But all that pioneering of new frontiers “materially, technologically and environmentally” may also help advance construction on Earth, too, said Bjarke Ingels, BIG founder and creative director. “The answers to our challenges on Earth very well might be found on the moon.”

At the same time, we have a slew of private companies— SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic—plotting out the business of space tourism. Now that coffeemaker Lavazza and the Italian Space Agency figured out how to make zero-gravity espresso, I’m good to go.

Do I expect to be packing my bags for an interplanetary trip anytime soon? Nah. For right now, though, the Mars missions spark new ways of thinking—a much-needed dose of joy and astonishment to an exhausted humankind. And that’s some impressive ROI.

What do you think of the Mars projects? Can they help teams here on Earth deliver more innovation?