Open letter to Organizations Competing To Get To Mars First

Dear Organizations Competing To Get To Mars First,

You understand the need to find the alternative of Earth in case it can no longer sustain life. You are worried about humanity slowly poisoning itself. That is why there are at least 9 of you (NASA, SpaceX, the European Space Agency, Boeing, Lockheed etc.) who are trying to colonize Mars, a valiant effort. The colonization of Mars will boost the chances of survival of humankind as it makes humans a “multi-planetary species” as Elon Musk put it. Some of you are working together such as NASA and SpaceX, but most are competing against each other. The question is, does mankind need to have all these groups working on separate projects to colonize mars? The huge amount of time and resources required is duplicated and wasted on so many projects. We should consolidate them all into one project and increase the chances of success. This is not a game. This is not a competition. This is saving humanity.

The mission to Mars is a task that will take huge investments. The amount of money needed is in the trillions of dollars (the planet’s richest company, Apple inc., is worth “only” $725 billion). While there is some cooperation between governments, such as the EU and Russia on the ExoMars, as well as private and public sectors partnerships (“PPP”), like NASA (a government agency) and SpaceX (a private company), there is still heated competition between several groups to be the first to send humans to Mars. All these individual projects cost billions of dollars which are spent on making the same things (like rockets and shuttles) by each and every group. NASA alone has estimated a budget of $54 billion (in 2015) per year to fund its Mars mission, which is a lot considering its current budget is “only” $18 billion (in 2016). Mars One estimates that it needs $6 billion just to land the first four people on Mars. These whopping costs do not include the billions it will take to actually make Mars suitable for human life. Instead of burning cash, doing the same things across different groups, all that money could be consolidated and distributed more efficiently to different parts of the mission, such as developing rockets, habitats and life support systems, and ensure that the equipment and technology developed will be the very best in class.

Colonizing Mars takes cutting edge and yet-to-be-invented technology, both to transport humans to Mars, a 225 million km journey, and to ensure their survival on the red planet, in which humans still cannot survive unaided without proper equipment. Combining efforts will allow the sharing of technology, which is crucial for the success of this mission because each group is the best in certain fields, but none are the best in all fields. For example, NASA is good at launching spaceships safely and successfully because it has over 135 space shuttle missions in the last 30 years. However, SpaceX can do things faster than NASA because it can take more risks. There are many technological problems that concerns practically all the fields of science that need to be solved, for example, the problem involving having enough fuel and a spacecraft capable of carrying it and all the other supplies needed, and actually getting the astronauts there in a small amount of time to prevent them from getting cancer from cosmic radiation or heading in a collision course with an asteroid. Cooperating and sharing information will help boost the chances of success. Come together to make the best thing you can make because there are many people counting on you to succeed.

You may say competition is good because it drives people to create their best work. In this case, it pushes groups to use the least amount of capital possible in order not to lose money and lower the cost of the mission. I agree that competition often brings good results, however the scale of this project is bigger than anything we humans have ever done. I think that in this case cooperation will benefit humanity more than competition. You must see this less as a contest, but rather as a rescue mission that will save generations to come. It will make sure that we still exist in the universe. The mission to Mars should not be seen as a product. It should be seen as the mission to save humanity, not a chance to make a profit.

You should come together and work on a single project to get to Mars. This project will test the limits of technology and what we know. Cooperation is important because it is a way to pool information, technology and funds to increase the chances that the project is successful. Groups should not selfishly compete for reasons such as profit or ego because this is bigger than you. Humans have and are still cooperating on the International Space Station, so it can be done. I see that you are going to save us. Don’t fail humanity. We need to survive.

Sincerely,

A Concerned Citizen of Earth