What we see nowadays is a rat race everywhere and space exploration is no exception. It’s a new travel mantra called “Destination Mars”. Every Mars enthusiast wants to be Captain Kirk from Star Trek to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilisations, to boldly go where no man has gone before! In a few years we could see people booking one-way trips to Mars on travel websites or property consultants selling plots on Mars. For all those adventurous people out there who wish to reside in a very challenging atmosphere like Mars, until arrangements are in place for Mars travel, why don’t we help them fulfil their life-risking desires by booking them tickets for Mount Everest or Antarctica. At least we can give assurance for their return passage, in comparison to Mars where tickets will be initially issued only one-way.
The human race is an unsatisfied and impatient species, never content with the available resources. We are constantly trying to set new frontiers and challenges every day. To seek knowledge is always interesting if the same is helpful in the development of the human race, otherwise ignorance is bliss if such knowledge is damaging.
On a serious note, we call ourselves human beings, however analysing the world’s problems, we should introspect and question ourselves. Until now we are unable to become complete human beings and we are talking of becoming a multi-planetary species. Human greed is never ending for power and land.
We are now planning to colonise Mars. This seems to be an interesting idea, but equally hypocritical. Without fixing our already existing Earthly problems, we are trying to seek new challenges and problems on other planets, thereby further wasting and damaging existing resources on Earth. We are responsible for our own actions and it’s not too late to fix this by behaving like a global rational citizen and minimising the wastage of our depleting natural resources.
– The reader is a chartered accountant based in Dubai
