Monday, May 5, 2014

Journal entry - "Why go to Mars?"

I have a journal I'm keeping, an actual ink on paper with a leather cover journal that I write in from time to time to keep track of my thoughts and feelings on this journey toward Mars. What got into my head was that when I married my beautiful bride I implied that I would be here to take care of her for as long as I am able and I am basically opting out of that implied promise for what seems to her to be dubious reasons. Well, it hasn't escaped my notice that the first people to live on Mars will be huge historic figures and their memorabilia - especially that connected to Mars One - will be very valuable. I thought that if I could document my journey in writing, maybe those journals would be a means to contribute to her financial livelihood when I go.

I think that one of the first things that we the applicants found out (and I, for one, was surprised by) was that some people didn't understand how we could accept leaving Earth forever. The first mistake I find that I have to correct is that I want to leave. We don't hate Earth, we don't hate our lives, we just see the prospect of life on another planet as sufficient recompense for what we're giving up here. After that I have to explain how I could leave my family (my wife actually, the kids are good with it) behind. I still can't get that across to people.

So one day I wrote an entry in my journal to try to explain it. I've realized that this explanation needs to be gotten across before, not after, the mission so I'm going to reproduce it here with a note: the "But - Mars" comment refers to an earlier entry in the journal. It will be available for purchase sometime after I leave for Mars if my wife needs the money. If she's independently wealthy maybe she'll donate it to a museum.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

20 June 2013

I thought that I might try to put into words the reasons that I want to go to Mars. I was telling Katie the other day that I've always said that there are two things – God and Love – that you can't quite explain in words. You could write  a library full of books and if someone understands they'll get what you're saying in the first line but if they don't understand they'll never get it. So it is with this. So I will try to put it into words, but I can only hope that you already know what I mean.
Let me begin by explaining my understanding of the term calling. It is used most often in churches, but I believe that it applies in all sorts of cases. In church one can often hear about people who feel called by God to be preachers or missionaries or such. I've always said that the term also applies to certain jobs outside of the church such as teachers and nurses particularly.
This opportunity to fly off to Mars feels almost like a calling to me. From when I first heard about it I've wanted nothing else. For as long as I can recall I've wanted to be an astronaut. I watched every takeoff and landing of the old Space Shuttle that I could find on tv. I remember where I was and what I was doing when the Shuttle exploded during takeoff better than I remember the events of 11 September 2001. It just touched me more. When I was sixteen and headed off to college I decided to go into a course of study that might allow me to eventually be a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle. Life got in the way, obviously, but that dream has never left.
And now … I can picture in my mind the sight of our beautiful mother Earth from space. She sits there wearing her blues and greens and browns while wrapped about with a cloak of misty white which shifts and spins while she turns majestically beneath me. Many of us have seen such sights in our mind's eye as we turned the pages of Heinlein, Asimov, or Clarke, nearly everyone has seen such visions as laid before us by movie makers, but can you imagine being one of the very few dozens who have seen it with their own eyes? The very thought makes me shiver with anticipation. Now imagine being one of only four human beings in all of history to see the ruddy globe of a new homeworld spinning below. Seeing the rusty surface overlaid with the soft pillowy dust of a storm blowing fiercely by. Gazing in rapture at the glittering ice fields of the polar caps. Admiring the grandeur of the largest volcano in the solar system, now long dormant but no less awe-inspiring as it rises far above the rocky plains below. Picture your feelings as you step out of your lander onto the rock strewn surface of your new home prepared to face the challenges of taming a foreign, inhospitable, passively hostile world.
I cannot conceive of a better feeling in this life than this. That is what I see when something in my head says “But – Mars,” it's an overwhelming desire that justifies any expense. To me, at least.
Beyond that, the expense is justified by the gains that mankind will receive. Every venture into the unknown has paid back into the common fund of humanity with considerable interest. The advances in technology will help millions of people here on Earth in ways that we can't even imagine now. The hope that will be felt in many a breast on seeing men and women venturing into the unknown will carry many forward through life encouraging them to follow their dreams. Consider also the future of mankind. Should any disaster befall our mother planet we will continue on in another place and what we learn here can help us to spread further into our universe. The farther we spread out, the more secure the future of our species becomes.
Perhaps I won't get to hold my grandchildren, but I look forward to getting the messages they will record and send to me and maybe I can be there to greet one of them as they land to join our colony, or maybe because of what I've done I'll hear about one of them going out as a scouting party for the first settlers of Titan. Or I could be the inspiration for one of them developing the first interstellar engine to take us out of this system and on into the galaxy. This is only a small second step, but as we take inspiration from Armstrong and Aldrin, future generations will take their inspiration from us.