I was reading a blog post the other day that talked about the concept of colonizing the red planet and one point stood out in particular to me – that 1,000 people from all walks of life had volunteered to take the one-way trip to further mankind’s exploration of our solar system.
Talk about a once in a lifetime opportunity!
…but I just don’t think that I could do it myself…
I mean, as much of a space fan that I am and how absolutely cool it would be to not only see another planet but also walk on its surface and eventually live there, I’ve kind of become accustomed to life here on Earth and I simply don’t think that I’d have the guts to give it all up for that type of adventure! Come to think of it, I’m not entirely sure that I would be able to handle just taking a ride to the International Space Station if for some bizarre reason I actually got the chance. I’ve seen too many science fiction movies and there’s just too many things that could go wrong.
Still, I do hope that eventually colonization of Mars does become a reality and I think it’s very cool for those other people who would be willing to take that kind of giant leap into the unknown in the name of science. To think that roughly 35 years ago, the very first Mars rover landed on the surface and not only have there also been 4 other rovers taking photos and collecting samples across the surface ever since, but you and I don’t even have to work for NASA anymore to have access to their findings because we can pull up Google Mars and explore all sorts of different kinds of maps right from our home computers!
So it’s comforting to see that despite ridiculous budget cuts and privatization efforts by our government who don’t see the priority in space exploration that their predecessors saw, luckily there are still plenty of folks out there who are extremely passionate about this cause and that one way or another, mankind’s conquest of the stars will continue. Will there actually be people living on Mars within my lifetime, or even my children’s lifetime???
Who knows – maybe one of my grandchildren or something will end up being an explorer!