The Ethics of a Manned Flight to Mars

Many say it will cost two trillion dollars for a manned flight to Mars. The Russians say it will cost five trillion. With the history of NASA’s overruns, the Russians are probably much closer to the truth of ten trillion, which is knocking on the GNP of the world.

And what will be accomplished?

We will do just like we did when we went to the moon.  We will bring back a bag full of rocks—and we sure won’t go back again.

NASA has found a meteorite they say is from Mars and has evidence of life in it.  Other space agencies have now announced that they too have found Martian rocks lying on the surface of the earth.

So everyone wants to go to Mars now.

Am I missing something here?

We have got free Martian rocks lying all over the surface of the earth just waiting to be picked up—so we need to go to Mars and get another bag full?

Will somebody please explain this reasoning to me?

It seems to me that—to solve NASA’s problem—God has given us all the Martian rocks we need and He has done it for free.  We don’t even need to go to the expense of sending unmanned probes to Mars.  We’ve got Mars here.

The lack of moral reservation for such a trip is mind-boggling to me.

Of the world’s six billion people, half live on little more than a dollar a day, and 1.2 billion live on less.  Two billion are illiterate.

It is not time to go to Mars, and it won’t be for centuries—not until we have rid the world of poverty, and disease, and war, and crime, and last of all, amoral scientific madness.
 

James Muecke

944 Paint Rock Ferry Road
Kingston, TN 37763
865-717-9647
email: jamesmuecke@usa.com

Please send this letter to your representatives in Washington if you want to voice your opposition to the manned trip to Mars.