Is There Life on Mars?
If there is life, then I believe we
should do nothing to disturb that life.
Mars then, belongs to the Martians,
even if they are microbes.
—Carl Sagan (1934-1996),
Astronomer, Astrophysicist
My new national strategy for space recognizes
that space is a war-fighting domain
just like the land, air and sea. We may even
have a Space Force.
—President Trump, Marine Corps
Air Station-Miramar, San Diego, March 2018
In summer 2020
the Mars Exploration Mission will land another rover vehicle on the Red Planet in
order to examine surface geology and to investigate
a region of Mars where an ancient environment may have been favorable for
microbial life. Will we find out at long last if there really is “life on Mars?”
What’s wrong with this picture?
• 1.7 trillion dollars a year are spent on the world’s militaries.
• Three billion people live on less than 2 dollars a day.
• Twenty-two thousand children a day die from conditions due to poverty.
(Statistics: UNICEF and Globalissues.org)
Since the
first Mars Exploration Mission in 1964 the United States has spent 2.5 billion
dollars on the venture and will spend an additional 2.4 billion by 2020.
(Source: Office of
Inspector General—2017 audit of NASA’s Mars 2020 project)
Are these
missions to outer space for national security, economic benefit, scientific
study, or to satisfy human curiosity by exploring the unknown—existential questions for beings on a small planet in the universe?
Is There Life on Mars?
Who
owns the Earth?
 |
| Jeff Key—Vessel #43—Boundaries, Wood, 42” x 42” x 12” |
Is
it whoever is bigger and stronger?
Who
owns the sky?
Is
it whoever is smarter or more cunning?
Who
owns the planets?
Is
it whoever is there first?
The
Mars Rover has landed.
Three
hundred million miles from Earth—The
product of the finest minds of the modern age—
a new
frontier christened with the burden of expectation.
Should
we build a mall on Mars?
Only
if it is assured that they will spend.
Should
we strip the crust to the core?
Only
if analysts guarantee the yield.
Should
we displace the indigenous life?
Only
if they’re squatting on the spoils.
Greed
and destruction have landed. Scars
formed by years of indifference—
a new
millennium to be shaped by the hand of illusion.
