12 Oct 2016
Man on Mars by 2030. A few days after the landing of the Schiaparelli module, Roberto Battiston's position on human exploration of the Red Planet in the “La Stampa” national daily newspaper
Why must man go to Mars? The first answer lies in the young and exciting story of space exploration: from 1957, the year in which the first satellite, Sputnik, was launched, Jurij Gagarin's flight in 1961 to Neil Armstrong's footprint on the Moon, it took man just 12 years to conquer space. Just over 50 years had gone by since the Wright brothers' first flight and, in the blink of an eye, Mankind had started to define the new paths of its evolution in the skies and in space, pursuing an irrepressible need to explore.
Another answer is that space is a formidable driver of technological innovation. Computers are an example of this. Behind the success of the moon landing, there was the Apollo Guidance Computer, the control, guidance and navigation system and the first integrated circuit computer in the history of computer science, on which NASA and scientists of the MIT in Boston worked together.
That endeavour is truly one of key elements in the history of computer science, triggering the use of the fly-by-wire guidance systems (i.e. electronic and computerized systems that directly command engines and control surfaces): thanks to research, these had a fundamental impact on the aerospace industry. However, the impact of lunar flight technology has gone far beyond the aerospace sector: from the Gore-Tex of astronauts' space suits and the invention of battery-operated instruments for drilling into the surface of the Moon, to velcro in place of buttons and zips, smoke detectors, fluoride chewing-gum and solar energy systems.
It is estimated that every dollar spent, of the approximately 25 billion allocated to the Lunar Programme by NASA, has been multiplied by three as a result of the technological spin-offs on the market. This is a fundamental point, thinking about the “new space economy” that, more than ever before, is now turning space into a driving force of the economy, positively influencing our lives. In fact, thanks to the Earth Observation satellite systems, we can accurately monitory our planet in order to get a better understanding of the dynamics of the different ecosystems and take action on climate changes and crop cultivation or for providing accurate forecasts allowing us to act more rapidly in the event of natural disasters. All this has economic impacts and triggers new scientific studies.
Space is a pervasive infrastructure with no borders, by definition, relative to which we are still unaware of all its potential and it is also a formidable new value chain capable of reaching all citizens. The point is this: space is a source of great inspiration and of progress and one that produces value, all at the same time.
It is no coincidence that, two weeks ago, Elon Musk, the head of SpaceX, enjoyed great success when he explained his programme for establishing a colony on Mars at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico. Yet, just a few days earlier, one of his launch vehicles had exploded during a test. Going beyond the difficulties and the unavoidable failures during our journey on Earth and in space, the will of visionaries like Musk is the most valuable asset that justifies and nourishes space exploration. Mars can now guarantee humanity the same thing that was guaranteed by Apollo on the Moon - that is, a quantum leap for science and for technology: We will need to have software and hardware capable of being autonomous at greatest distances - and in extreme conditions.