Per the NASA Authorization Act of 2010 and the U.S. National Space Policy (also issued in 2010), NASA is currently developing the capability to send humans to Mars. Aside from the normal budgetary wrangling that accompanies any such large endeavor, the decision to use human beings instead of robots raises many ethical and policy questions. The refusal to rely on robots endangers lives, vastly increases the costs of the mission, and delays further exploration of Mars. Moreover, although there are still some things robots cannot do, developments in AI make them smarter and smarter. Last but not least, Roger Wiens, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, notes that any person who landed on Mars would only be able to return following the assembling of "a relatively large rocket on the Martian surface to blast the astronauts back into orbit. It would be extremely costly, not to mention incredibly risky."
Because the return from Mars is the costliest, and most technically challenging part of the mission, some astronauts, including Buzz Aldrin, have suggested that any human mission to Mars should be a one-way one; in plain English a suicide mission. Even if the two-way trip would be successfully completed, Laurie Zoloth, a professor of medical ethics and humanities at Northwestern University, notes that in addition to the obvious medical and physiological risks of such a proposal, there are also significant psycho-social risks for those who engage in such a voyage.
In response, NASA's Administrator Charles Bolden argues that the first humans to go to Mars would be serving the greater good of humanity: "If this species is to survive indefinitely, we need to become a multi-planet species. So one reason we need to go to Mars is so we can learn a little about living on another planet, so when Mikaley, my granddaughter, is ready to move out of the solar system we'll know a lot more about living away from this planet than we know today." Very touching. Anybody who feels a burning need to become a member of a 'multi-planet species' should make donations to NASA's manned missions. The rest of us may wish to invest our ingenuity and research and development efforts and dollars in other missions.
I have been following NASA since 1964, when I published a book called The Moondoggle. The book argued that the nation would be much better served if the resources dedicated to the lunar visit were invested in the inner cities and shoring up the environment. The book challenged various claims the NASA propaganda machine was spouting on behalf of Project Apollo. NASA depicted capturing the moon as a military necessity. I argued that if we had to fire at the Soviet Union, shooting from the moon would give them much longer warning time than from any place on earth. NASA claimed that the moon contained some fabulous materials. My book countered that there was no evidence that the moon had any hidden treasures. NASA claimed that putting a man on the moon would lift America's prestige overseas. I pointed to public opinion polls that showed that people in many countries would have preferred for us to focus on conquering poverty and disease. Finally, the book maintained that if we must invest large amounts of scarce resources in space--the place to go was near space (around the earth) and not outer space. This turned out to be the case, as one can see if one compares the benefits of weather, communication, and reconnaissance satellites to lunar trips. I closed by arguing that it would be much safer and less costly if we relied on unmanned flights. (See, for instance, the great achievements of Hubble).
I am repeating all this to show that NASA learned nothing and forgot nothing. It still believes that the only way it can capture the imagination of American tax payers is if it sends astronauts to Mars. And it keeps pushing for this policy despite all the lessons of the human visits to the moon and the huge risks and costs of a visit to Mars.
Amitai Etzioni is a University Professor and professor of international relations at The George Washington University. His latest book, Privacy in a Cyber Age, was released in 2015 by Palgrave MacMillan. You can follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. Send an email to icps@gwu.edu to subscribe to his monthly newsletter.