There is no doubt that the exploration of Mars is an important step for humanity, but portraying this trip as a step to save humanity from planet Earth is not accurate.

This framing of the journey hides behind it the personal interests of Elon Musk and his ilk, not least of which is the achievement of glory and fame and the colonization of space for projects belonging to the wealthy alone.

Nowhere is Earth comparable to it, unless it's Elon Musk.

According to Musk, it is likely that a prototype of "SpaceX Starship" will be launched, which could send humans to Mars someday soon, and perhaps in the coming days.

But what motivates Musk?

Why is he bothering himself with Mars?

A video clip from an interview Musk gave in 2019 almost summarizes Musk's vision and all of its shortcomings.

In the video clip, we see Musk reading a passage from Carl Sagan's book, "Pale Blue Dots."

The book, published in 1994, was written by Sagan (Translated by The World of Knowledge, Kuwait 2000) in response to a famous image of the planet in which it appears as a spot of light swimming in the solar ray.

It is a snapshot that NASA begged to capture via its "Voyage 1" spacecraft in 1990 when it took off into space 3.7 billion miles away from Earth.

Sagan believed that if we got a picture of ourselves from this distance, it would change our view of our position in space forever.

Elon #Musk channels Dr.

Carl #Sagan famous saying about the Pale Blue Dot pic.twitter.com/CybqAzmM9i

- John Carlos (@JohnCarlos) February 14, 2021

Musk reads from Sagan's book: “Our planet is but a lonely spot in a blanket of vast cosmic darkness surrounding us. In our darkness, in all this breadth, there is no subtle hint or even a hint that help will come from somewhere else to save us from ourselves. Planet Earth is the only planet known so far as a haven for life, and there is no other place for our species to migrate to in the near future. "

There, Musk interrupts himself and begins to laugh, and says in a tone filled with suspicion: "This is not true. It is wrong, there is Mars."

But he couldn't be mistaken any more.

Did he say Mars?

Mars is the epicenter of Hell.

The focal point about Mars is that it is not planet Earth, and it hardly ever comes close to it.

In fact, the only things our planet and Mars have in common is that both of them are rocky planets that have some icy water, and that both have robots on their surface, and Mars does not have a lot of them.

This is an image of the Martian surface on the day the NASA spacecraft landed on the red planet

The atmosphere of Mars is very thin, and it has no magnetic field that helps protect its surface from solar radiation or galactic space radiation, not to mention that its air is not breathable and its surface temperature is 80 degrees below zero.

Does Musk think Mars is like Earth?

For humans to live on its surface, by what means would they have to build tunnels and live underground, and what splendor is comparable to living in a tunnel along which seasonal depressive disorder and lettuce germination using ultraviolet light?

You can bid farewell to breathe in the fresh air and walk without needing to protect a space suit (on planet Earth), but know that if you go for an EVA activity and something happens, you will have 60 seconds of thundering pain and death.

There is no doubt that wandering on the surface of Mars would be a wonderful, distinct and profound experience, but visiting it to demonstrate technological progress or expand the horizons of human potential is very different from living there.

It is not in the place that would fit human beings

Mars will take you.

Musk is not from Mars, but he and Karl Sagan appear to come from different worlds.

Like Sagan, Mask shows a kind of religious devotion to the space, with a fervent desire to go there, but the purposes of each of them are completely different.

Sagan has inspired generations of writers, teachers and engineers who feel driven to chase the dread that he has pursued from the bottom of their hearts.

All those who refer to Sagan as the reason behind the scientific field they have chosen for themselves miraculously relate to being human beings and are amazed at the idea that we have grown up on the surface of a beautiful, rare planet.

The impact of Elon Musk on generations is very different.

Mask has used a medium for dreaming and exploration for the purposes of proof of worthiness, greed and vanity.

Mask has neither a yearning for scientific exploration nor a desire to understand the factors that make Earth different from Mars, and how we all blend together and relate to one another.

Musk is not a scout, he is a land broker, and he seems to have missed a sentence from "Pale Blue Dot" that says: "Perhaps there is no better proof of the absurdity of human illusions than this distant picture of our small world."

Elon Musk

Sagan believed in sending humans to Mars to explore it first and then live in it, to ensure the long-term survival of humanity, but he also said: “What will we do with Mars? There are so many examples of humans abusing Earth to the point that formulating this question sends me shudders. Life on Mars, so I think we should leave Mars alone. Mars is for the Martians, even if they are just microbes. "

Musk, by contrast, stimulates a sense of entitlement in space, that we can and must colonize space, regardless of what may be there, only in the distant desire for security.

There are good reasons to be concerned about the long-term survival of humans, and it is true that having the ability to travel more efficiently around the solar system would be a good thing.

But I doubt any of the world's richest people’s narration that they care so much about humanity’s survival that they should send rockets into space.

It was a priority for people in these centers to do a lot of things on the roof of our Blue Point to help those in need on it.

The mourning of Sagan's words means that Musk has completely missed the point of his words: There is really only one place for us, and we are in it.

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This article is translated from The Atlantic and does not necessarily represent the Meydan website.