Mars: A Last Frontier Essay -- Exploratory Essays Research Papers

Mars: A Last Frontier ABSTRACT: In this paper, I will attempt to present a general discussion of Mars and attempt to explain some of the history and reasons why Mars has been a fixture of human imagination. Ultimately, I hope that my overview will help the reader understand Mars and what is fact and science fiction concerning the possibilities of traveling, living on, and discovering life on Mars. Mars has once again gained national notoriety and graced the front pages of many popular magazines in recent months. The possibility that life existed on Mars has gotten the science community in a frenzy over renewed possibilities for continued exploration of this mysterious planet. New evidence of life on Mars is hinged on the conjecture that water once was abundant in the Martian atmosphere. The quest to prove that water and discover if life did exist has spurred international cooperation in sponsoring various missions to Mars. Curiosity about Mars is not a new phenomena. In fact, Mars has been present in literature, film, and radio for hundreds of years. Perhaps, one of the most poignant examples of Martian influence in our the world's media is the radio adaptation of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds given by Orson Welles. Welles, in this fictional address intended to sound like a broadcast, reported that Martians had landed at Grovers Mill, New Jersey. Welles conveyed that the world would meet impending doom (http://humbabe.arc.nasa.gov/mgcm/fun/pop.html). Thousands of Americans who tuned in after Welles explained to the audience was fiction believed that New Jersey had truly been invaded, and a brief panic ensued. Welles rectified the crisis by reiterating that the address was absolutely untrue. However, the panic inci... ...ize the planets magnetic fields and ultimately help determine the planet's core temperature, and lastly the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) which will measure the height of the Martian surfaces by rapidly firing infrared light and measuring the time it takes for the light to be reflected back to the spacecraft (http://mgs-www.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/mgsbroca.html). These new technologies will hopefully provide new insight into the mysteries of this planet. People in the space program are very optimistic about what this unmanned series of missions to Mars over the course of the next decade will yield. Research universities, NASA and aerospace firms hope to eventually send humans to Mars and possibly even colonize the planet (Begley, p.54). The turn of the next century will be an exciting time for the space industry as science fiction very well may become a reality.