Jeff Key

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.

Conclusions can be made about our national priorities considering that:

• 40 million people in the US (12.7%) 
live in poverty.

• 41.2 million live in food-insecure households, (including 28.3 million adults and 12.9 million children).

• 44 million people have no health insurance, and another 38 million have inadequate health insurance.

(Statistics: Feeding America, Poverty Hunger Fact Sheet, 2017 and PBS Interview—Sherry Glied, PhD, Head, Division of Health Policy, Columbia University)

The 2018 Federal budget increases include:

• $700 billion dollars for Dept. of Defense expenditures—an increase of 18% from the 2017 budget.  (includes additional funds for missile defense and tactical nuclear weapons)

• Additional $16 billion for Defense in 2019 or a 23% increase since 2017 (Statistics-Center for America Progress, Feb. 2018)

The 2018 Federal budget cuts include:

• $68 billion for Dept. of Education—a of cut of 14% from the 2017 budget (cuts to teacher training, after-school programs and aid to low-income students)

• $5.7 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency—a cut of 31% (eliminates 50 programs and 3,200 jobs)

• $65.1 billion for the Dept. of Health and Human Services—a cut of 18% (cuts to the National Institute of Health and the US Public Health Service)

• $9.6 billion for the Dept. of Labor—a cut of 21% (eliminates senior-work programs, grants for health training and closes some Job Corps centers)

• $27.1 billion for the State Dept.—a cut of 29% (eliminates UN peacekeeping and climate change mitigation programs) 
                                                     (Statistics-Congressional Budget Office, July 2017)