Guess what’s more practical than Mars
By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune
The more astronomers look at it, the bigger the universe seems to be. We send space probes into our solar system, but the distances they travel are nothing compared to the distances between our solar system and others in our galaxy.
Even if space ships could move at the speed of light, it would take them years, even centuries, to get to where they could see much more than they can see now from spacecraft orbiting the earth. We have a spacecraft on Mars, but it is learning only that the red planet is lousy real estate.
So, why do we keep going into space when there is a much more practical place to explore? It is a place nature has endowed with wonders we barely have begun to observe. It is a place we could colonize. It is a place that contains untold riches that we potentially could harvest.
And we have been there before.
You’ve probably guessed by now that I’m talking about the oceans.
The more we go into the oceans, the more we discover. We have learned a little by floating around on top of the oceans, but it is when we dive to their depths that we begin to learn what a wonderland the oceans are.
Mars doesn’t have oceans. It may have had oceans at one time, but so what? Our oceans are here and now.
Of course, they are dangerous places to go if you dive below the surface, but no more so than outer space is dangerous.
I heard someone on public radio say the other day that she supports Martian exploration because that is where we humans probably will wind up some day. That seems like science fiction thinking.
The oceans are real. The nation should spend more on studying them.
