Ever wonder what it would be like to live on another planet? Your wish could be granted in the near future with the advancement of space programs around the globe. Through my research, I found that a trip to Mars is in a much more advanced state than I originally thought. I have realized through my research that a successful trip to Mars could unveil secrets that scientists have been waiting on. For years there has been successful drone mission that were completed on Mars. These missions have collected tons of data that the scientist researched. The research has been used to determine that we could in fact travel to Mars. This paper will focus on key things to consider when you bring up the idea of traveling to Mars, as well as other aspects on space travel.

The first article is titled, "Manned Mission to Mars By 2030s is Really Possible" by Miriam Kramer. This article is very informative to the reader as it is directed toward an audience of science and space fans. I believe starting with this article is important because it lays out an actual timeline when an actual mission will be possible. This article doesn't support much ethos but shows pathos as it is just an article written for the website Space.com. You can really tell that Kramer put time in to this article to express her feelings on the topic. I believe that a trip to Mars is possible through Kramers finding and believe that others do as well. The basis of this article is on the ideas of a group of more than thirty government, industry, and academic experts who evaluated if a mission to Mars is realistic. These experts came up with an achievable solution to restore NASA's budget to "pre-sequestration" levels, so that a trip to mars is attainable. Chris Carberry, the executive director of Explore Mars Inc., states that, for a flight to Mars to even be possible NASA would need to reevaluate their budget. From 2012 to 2013 NASA's budget was cut from seventy six billion to less than eighteen billion dollars. A flight will never be able to happen under the government's budget restraints. NASA is not the only one capable of a mission to Mars. Mars One, a private company is working on colonizing the planet. They are planning to send an unmanned shuttle in 2018. NASA, Boeing, Orbital Sciences Corp. and people attending the Affording Mars Workshop came up with six agreements that space agencies could use to plan a mission to Mars. These agreements range from using the International Space station to preform deep space missions, continuous missions of robotic exploration through the 2020s, to the idea that human exploration could be possible by the 30s. If we used the International Space Station as a model and implemented the same idea of an "international" space flight, a mission could be possible.  The international space station could have been cut off years ago, but because of international treaties and agreements it is still here.

The next article I will be analyzing is called "Life On Mars". This article is written by Michael Gross who is science write at Oxford. Life on Mars is under question with failed studies conducted by a rover called Opportunity. But a new study is about to be conducted. "For the first time since 1977, when the twin Viking landers obtained ambiguous results form their biology experiments, which were eventually interpreted as negative, a probe will specifically look for chemical traces of life on Mars" (34). The rover Curiosity has the best set of analytical instruments that has been sent to space. The rover collects data such as photographs, soil and dust samples, and analyzes the conditions of the Martian environment. Since this article is academic it shows profound evidence of ethos as well its proof of logos. The reason behind these test are to prove the idea that yes, humans can and in fact will someday travel to another planet. We hope that I can be Mars because it is the most realistic and closest planet other than the Moon.

The next article is called, "Software on Mars" by Gregory Goth. Why would anyone want to risk their life for something when we can achieve the same goal with a robot. Two rovers in the Mars exploration program, Spirit and Opportunity "have served as interplanetary geologist". These rovers are great in their ability to capture panoramic photographs, to house spectrometers, magnets and microscopic tools. For one to say that these rovers have not done their job would be absurd. "Opportunity has struck some significant scientific finds, including evidence that whatever crashed into Mars and created the Endeavour crated led to an impact that released heated, underground water that deposited zinc in that rock."(13) If there was once water on the planet then that is a huge step toward the progression to life on Mars. NASA considers this finding to be on a more favorable level. A huge innovation introduced is the idea of autonomy in the rovers. If the rovers are able to think and do what they want then they do not have to communicate back home to maneuver or executes tasks. Communication is usually an issue so this way all information is gained and not lost.

The article titled, "NASA Craft Is Orbiting Mars, to Study Its Air," by Kenneth Chang is my second article. The article is about MAVEN and its mission plan. The article is aimed at your average person who doesn't know much about the topic. MAVEN short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission is the space probe that was sent to Mars. It will be observing and analyzing the planet in a few different ways. It arrived to the planet on September 21, 2014. MAVEN will be orbiting Mars to study the planets atmosphere and water. The probe is orbiting earth on a thirty-five hour loop. Chang states that, "The spacecraft is to spend five days observing how the comet's dust, traveling at 125,000 miles per hour, might heat up and expand Mars' atmosphere, and how water ice from the comet might bump up the levels of hydrogen."(Chang) Increased levels of hydrogen are one step of many to a habitable planet. On October 19th, the probe will be within 82,000 miles and sensors on the craft with activate and observe the planet. At one point in the planets past, the environment was a lot warmer and was a lot wetter according to Dr. Jakosky, a professor of geological sciences at the University of Colorado. Since then the air has thinned out which in turn left the planet very cold and dry. Scientist will study the upper atmosphere to observe how quickly the atmosphere is diminishing.

On a different view we can look at "International Space Station Gets Life Extension through 2024." This article is important because the space station could prove to be a huge asset for the future of long distance space flight. This article is written for a vast audience. The space station was given a extension through the year 2024. The space station can run experiments for testing different hypothesis for space flight. There was a projection that the space station would be shut down in 2020. New information has emerged and now scientist project that the space station is to be useful well past the 2020 mark. Some say it could still be in use by 2028. The space station has an annual 3 billion dollar budget that will last through the extension. In my opinion the space station should be replaced with a newer more advanced space station capable of housing a lot more astronauts and scientist. Because of the extension the United States may no longer have to partner with the Russians when sending Americans to space, on Soyuz, the Russian spacecraft that taxis to and from the space station. The United States is looking to buy flights from U.S. companies around the 2017 mark. "Several companies, such as SpaceX, Boeing, Sierra Nevada and Blue Origin, are developing vehicles to view for NASA space taxi-contracts." The only reason the United States has not switched to the American companies is because they are bound by a contract through 2016 on Russian Soyuz. Because of limitability the United States will be purchasing seats on Russian Soyuz past 2016 as well. 
Now to be able to put a mission like the human exploration of space we first must compare it to the only other human exploration of another planet. The article, "Lunar Exploration" gives a detailed analysis of space mission that were conducted by the United States. The mission's main objective was simple; get an American Astronaut on the moon before the Russians. The Russians mainly led the race to the moon. With the launch of Sputnik I on October 4, 1957 a new race was created. This race would be called the space race. The space race was a race to moon between really just the Russians and the Americans. Many challenges were followed with the idea to put humans on the moon. "To put a human on the Moon, scientists and engineers had a lot to learn; numerous technological feats had to be accomplished" (15).

The article, "From India, Proof That a Trip to Mars Doesn't Have to Break the Bank" by Saritha Rai, focuses on why a flight to Mars is cost efficient. India's most recent launch of their satellite only cost them seventy-five million dollars. NASA's mission, MAVEN is a similar project that cost a massive 671 million dollars. Granted NASA's satellite has three more instruments compared to India's five. The instruments on India's satellite are to study and measure methane gas. NASA's Maven studies the failure of the Martian climate. Because India only gets 0.34 percent of the country's annual outlay they only receive one billion dollars. The Indian Space Research Organization, or ISRO, has made due with what they are given. India has to participate in the space race on a huge budget. The ISRO saves the most money in low-cost engineering. "India's abundant supply of young technical talent helped rein in personnel costs to less than 15 percent of the budget."(AP) Lower level engineers make around $250 per week, way less than NASA engineers. Having a shorter development schedule rules out a lot of the cost as well. The entire project was completed in 18 months. They had to act quickly because they didn't want to miss the 26-month window where the Sun, Mars and Earth are line up for a launch to Mars.  Little time went into the testing of models, which is hard to believe that this mission had success.  "The building blocks are kept the same so we don't have to tailor-make for each mission" said Mr. Annadurai of the moon mission. A lot of people were upset that India has even spent a dime on space flight when their country starves. Mr. Narasimha, an aerospace scientist said, "My guess in that even the poorest Indians will happily forgo their chai to be able to see their country send a rocket all the way to Mars." I agree with Mr. Narasimha, people are happy with the success of their country and space success is something to be proud of.

The last article I will be analyzing is called, "Europe to Land on Mars" by Tereza Pultarova. Europe has always been one step behind when it comes to space travel and they do not want to be left behind this time. ExoMars is a prototype rover roaming a simulated Mars test facility in Stevenage, UK. But the main question to ask is, will the Europeans be able to stay in the race this time or will they be left behind once again? The rover is the key to the success for the Europeans wishing to be in the running for the next space race. Although the one probe is not the only thing scientist in Europe are working on for the exploration of Mars. "Technicians are working on Lisa Path Finder  --  an unusually shaped hexagonal spacecraft designed to measure gravitational waves the ripples in space-time predicted in Einstein's theory of general relativity" (49).

I believe that some of these sources will be useful in my final project. They will be useful because I find the information to be accurate and interesting. The topics also vary for one thing to the next. For instance they range from India's space budget to the colonization of mars. Although all these things revolve around Mars, they are varied based on their specific details and ideas.
