The Fruits of Exploration

The next two decades of NASA's Mars Exploration will improve the everyday life of the public through the application of a vast amount of scientific knowledge. America's most ingenious businesses will continue to adapt NASA research and technology for their use, dramatically improving the way we live and work.

NASA's commitment to "spinoff" technology ensures that the valuable scientific discoveries made by its researchers on Earth as well as its probes in space will be readily disseminated to improve technology across the country.

Also, the wealth of Mars data gathered by NASA's probes over the next two decades will dramatically improve scientists' understanding of Earth's biological, metrological, and geological condition.
Finally, NASA's desire to cooperate internationally in space exploration promises to open a new era in foreign policy. The internationally developed Mars missions will help to unite the world in the same way that the Apollo program helped to unite America in the troubled 1960s and 70s. NASA's engineers and researchers will continue making civilization's wildest dreams a reality throughout this century.

Spinoffs
Aside from the political and economic benefits of international cooperation, the Mars Express mission's technology could have wide-ranging commercial applications or "spinoffs." The Express' project team, for example, is working to improve communication with the Express mothership in flight to Mars and with the rover on the surface by reducing the time delay in signals sent between spacecraft near Mars. The work of these NASA and JPL scientists could be applied to Earth's commercial technology, possibly improving satellite and cell phone communications.

Unmanned airplanes, which are being developed for the Scout Missions, have immense potential for application on Earth, especially in the military. These improved unmanned aircraft could function as excellent spy planes, flying into canyons, valleys, and over other terrain. In addition, precise flying and targeting techniques could make mechanized war possible. These craft could limit the endangerment of military pilot's lives.

Remote welding techniques being developed for the Sample Return missions could have applications on Earth as well. Welding is a dangerous job, one that machines could do in a much safer way. Risky repair missions on earth as well as in space could be accomplished solely by machines, eliminating risk to humans and astronauts.

Besides aiding in a safer and easier landing on the surface of mars, the Velcran airbag design for probes used in many missions could be applied on earth. Rescue missions, food drop missions, and perhaps even emergency landing procedures for aircraft on Earth could all benefit from such technology.

Geological, Biological, and Meteorological
Scientists believe that Mars once had a climate similar to ours-lush and wet, with an atmosphere and liquid water on the surface. All known life requires some form of liquid water to survive, and such a climate could theoretically support life. Exploring this possibility is one purpose of the search for water, but another is related to the close similarities between Mars and Earth. The environment of Mars today is certainly very different from its Earthlike past. From earlier geological research conducted by probes to Mars, scientists now believe that the environment of Mars changed completely in a relatively short geologic period (100 million years): the liquid water on the planet disappeared and Mars became suddenly very cold -two factors that could be the causes of large-scale or even total extinction of all the species that may once have existed on Mars. A similar geological-meteorological process could occur on Earth. Through Mars research, scientists hope to gain insight about the forces that cause the freeze-drying of a planet and determine if Earth is at risk of such a drastic climate change.

International Cooperation
Mars exploration has the potential to unite cultures across borders in ways that lunar exploration once caused Americans to hold hands and gaze at the sky. International collaboration on the Mars project is essential, and the space agencies of the world are together taking great steps toward the exploration of the red planet. This exploration will not only reap benefits in technology and science but serve to unite our nations with the presence of a common goal.

A famous study by the psychologist Muzafer Sherif evaluated methods for improving group relations between teams at a summer boys' camp. An intense, frictional rivalry developed between the camp's two groups. After evaluating several methods for improving the interactions between groups, researchers concluded that the most effective method for uniting two conflicting groups is a transcending goal. Mars exploration has the potential to be one such transcending goal. By reaching for the stars, humanity also builds bonds within itself.