With Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson recently completing their groundbreaking space flight, this may lay the foundation for future space tourism, and it is worth seeing what human exploration of Mars may involve, although it may It will take decades.
Elon Musk may be the most famous advocate of Mars, but the idea has been around for decades.In 1966 Yearbook of the New York Academy of Sciences Paper, Gordon R. Woodcock of the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center proposed how to use the Saturn V launch vehicle (which was being developed for the Apollo moon mission) for Mars exploration. Technical challenges aside, as we continue to expand our exploration of Mars, there is a broader ethical issue at work. We should consider the past discoveries and the lessons of colonial voyages? History has provided us with many warning stories.
Human exploration has brought many extraordinary new discoveries, but it also inevitably led to the occupation and development of natural and human resources. The desire to control various commodities such as spices, sugar, and oil drove global discovery and the dynamics of political and economic domination. In the age of empire, European countries promoted their own interests by colonizing and controlling land, labor, and military power in various regions of the world, thereby gaining wealth and power.
After the early colonization of the United States in Europe, American colonists declared independence from the unjust British authority and formulated a constitution for the operation of modern society. However, this did not stop the settlers from referring to the indigenous people as barbarians and excluding them from claiming the right to freedom and happiness.
Then there is the question of “ownership”: Can the first country to plant a flag on the surface of another world obtain ownership? Such claims have been put forward many times before, and they are no better for the future of space exploration than human history on Earth.Obviously, if we are to settle on another planet-if we do, it may be a multinational effort-we need to make a constitution for Mars, one that can learn from the mistakes of the past Constitution, like in Hélène Landemore at Yale University In a recent course on constitutional political theory.
Also consider the fragile ecosystem of Mars. This planet must have an environment that is unfavorable for human life, but on Mars, humans will become an invasive species, which means everything. As the new settlers expanded their territories, the indigenous peoples on the newly decolonized lands of the United States were quickly destroyed by systemic wars and new diseases.The natural environment with which Native Americans established a harmonious and symbiotic relationship was also destroyed by the dual logic of expropriation and colonization Destiny.
Leaving aside biological life, Mars may have minerals with extraordinary properties, which are very suitable for future development. We have seen on Earth how mining can have a devastating effect on the environment; it is dishonest to think that the impact on the Martian environment will be less.
Based on the latest images sent by early missions and NASA’s Ingenuity and China Zhurong Mars Rover, The Martian landscape seems to be a cold desert with no visible traces of life. But if aliens land on the vast and desolate Gobi, the same can be said.Given the first impression of Mars in the photos sent back by the robot explorer, and the concept of hostile creatures envisioned in HG Wells’ novels World wars, And in movies like that Alien and independence Day, It seems unlikely. But we should be wary of describing the characteristics of “life” based solely on the experience of the earth.
Stephen Hawking had warned Contact with alien civilizations can lead to our own inevitable destruction. Given the current cost of human life and economic damage caused by a new earth-based virus, this idea is not so far-fetched. Although we are unlikely to be invaded by multi-limbed creatures that attempt to destroy the earth with death rays, we cannot rule out the possibility that there is a core of reality in Hawking’s prophecy.
The technical achievements of NASA and other space agency teams are certainly commendable. Contributions from related research in physics, materials science, chemistry, medicine, and many other fields may be unlimited.
As we seek to explore the world beyond our own, we now need to begin to examine history—and also adopt a more anthropological perspective—to consider how to best interact with completely different life forms, cultures, and environments. We may be able to formulate a new constitution and promise to engage with other places (and perhaps people) in a whole new way, but we should first assume that we need to deal with the impact of our own invasion of another planet before we begin our galaxy exploration Before the new era of conquering with the empire, completely unarmed.