Why do humans explore Mars?

199665438+On February 4th, the Mars Pathfinder was successfully launched. More than seven months later, it successfully sent the "Sogener" rover to Mars. This is the first rover that humans sent to Mars. So far, more than 30 probes have been to Mars. They made a detailed survey of Mars and sent back a lot of data to the Earth. However, about two-thirds of the detectors, especially those launched early, failed to complete their tasks successfully. Such a bumpy road to exploration has not eliminated people's yearning for Mars. Why does this red planet have such magical attraction? Why do humans explore Mars again and again?

Another "New World"

Why do humans explore Mars? This question is reminiscent of Columbus more than 500 years ago, who believed that India could be reached by crossing the endless Atlantic Ocean. Although it didn't turn out that way, he discovered the "New World". Now the American continent is overcrowded, and even the ice sheet in the Antarctic continent is getting more and more lively every day. There are no more idle continents on the earth.

Astronomers first turned their eyes to the moon. The distance from the earth to the moon is only 384 ~ 400 kilometers. Since Apollo astronauts landed on the moon as early as 1960s, why didn't people develop and utilize this new "continent" more effectively? In the agenda of 2 1 century, the development of the moon really occupies a prominent position.

So, what about the future? In the solar system, Venus and Mars are close neighbors of the earth. However, the environmental conditions on Venus are too harsh, the surface temperature exceeds 450℃, and the extremely dense atmosphere is full of sulfuric acid droplets, so it is very difficult to detect and develop. Mars, known as the "pocket earth", is expected to become another new continent after the moon.

"Mars Pathfinder" is on Mars (Source: NASA)

Climate for reference

Human exploration of other planets in the solar system can provide many references for a deeper understanding of our earth home. For example, since ancient times, human beings have paid a heavy price for bad weather, but they have not fully grasped the opportunities provided by good weather. In fact, I'm afraid there is no planet in the solar system with a more complicated climate than the earth. It is difficult for people to figure out how the impacts of ocean, land and atmosphere on climate are intertwined and ebb and flow. If we can find some simple global climate systems, such as only land without ocean, or only ocean without land, or the temperature of the whole atmosphere is constant, then it will be easier to understand the influence of ocean, land and atmosphere on the global climate, and it will be more convenient to study the complex earth climate.

Nature does provide such convenience. Jupiter's entire surface is completely liquid hydrogen, Venus is almost surrounded by a hot atmosphere with constant temperature, while Mars has a thin atmosphere and no ocean at all. Perhaps, it is the existence of the ocean that leads to the different patterns of windward winds on the earth and Mars. Studying this difference will help us to better grasp the climate and weather on the earth. Why don't we study the climate of other planets?

If there is life on Mars,

Another example is life on Mars that people are more interested in. Humans have been exploring the nature and mechanism of life. The more thoroughly we know about how the brain works, why people get old and how to prevent and treat various diseases, the better the human situation may become.

All life on the earth has the same ancestor and is a distant relative. All life forms on the earth are formed by the same type of complex molecules and undergo the same type of chemical reactions. When you study a bacterium, a willow tree or a biological molecule of a human body, you will find that the differences between them are actually quite small. They can be collectively called "life on earth". So, what if life is found on Mars?

There are two possibilities: one possibility is that life on Mars is completely different from life on earth, and the basic mode of life known to mankind will be changed from one to two, which will inevitably increase the general understanding of life. Another possibility is that the compounds that make up life on Mars are similar to those that make up life on Earth, which probably means that the basic mode of life is "only one family", and it is also a great gain to find out this.

Difference: a profound understanding of the nature of life

But what if you can't find any form of life on Mars? Perhaps it is because we assume that life on Mars behaves in the same way as life on Earth, so this exploration is futile. So, how can life activities be carried out? Why is life on earth like this? These are all important research topics related to the search for life on Mars. To say the least, even if there is no life on Mars, human efforts and money will not be in vain. Perhaps, the evolution of life on Mars has begun, but it died halfway. Perhaps, there are molecules that die in the middle of life in some places on Mars, and they may tell us what the "chemical evolution" stage should look like before the formation of life. In addition, finding out the cause of this premature death will certainly help to understand the essence of life more deeply.

To say the least, if there is nothing related to life on Mars at all, will the research done by human beings have no purpose? No, there are so many similarities between Mars and Earth, but the result of their development is completely opposite: the Earth is full of life, but Mars has no chance of life. Why on earth is this? Distinguishing this difference will also contribute to a deeper understanding of life on the earth itself.

In the final analysis, the exploration of extraterrestrial life will help to solve the mystery of the origin of life and deepen the understanding of life phenomena, and the final result will be to make human life happier.

Humans are eager to "fire up"

There are many things worth studying on Mars. For example, people can send a rover to collect rock samples in the dry "river bed" of Mars, or go deep into a huge canyon to collect samples of Mars crust several kilometers thick. The rocks there contain abundant information about the geological evolution history of Mars, from which we can infer the ice age on Mars. If the cold and warm periods of Mars and the Earth coincide, then the fundamental cause of this climate change is probably the change of solar output energy. This will help to uncover a great mystery in earth science-how glaciation started and how it ended. On the other hand, if the Mars Ice Age is very different from the Earth Ice Age, then their history should be caused by some unknown reasons.

Future Mars exploration, including manned Mars flight, will help to find the answers to these questions. Nowadays, all countries in the world are actively preparing to "board the ship to put out the fire". Just as "exploring the moon" usually refers to unmanned exploration of the moon and "landing on the moon" refers to human landing on the moon in person, "landing on the moon" also refers to human landing on Mars, not just launching unmanned detectors for investigation.

According to the preliminary plans of space agencies in various countries, "boarding the fire" began in the 1930s. It costs a lot of money for human beings to "add fuel to the fire", but it will bring extremely valuable knowledge. Knowledge is priceless, and the key lies in how human beings use it wisely and reasonably. History has repeatedly proved this point, and it will continue to prove it countless times.

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