Track On The Moon Persuasive Essay

Most people have heard the saying “don’t keep all your eggs in one basket.” Same is true for ensuring the survival of the human species. Elon Musk, and several other well known scientists, have said “We need to be a multi planet species” (Orwig). Because if anything were to happen to the Earth, everything that humans ever accomplished would be lost and forgotten. Even though the chances of an asteroid strike are extremely small, there are still many other things that could happen that would result in a part or all of the Earth becoming uninhabitable. As aforementioned, the Earth can run out of supplies to support the human population, but there is still the possibility of nuclear fallout, global epidemic, or the pollution of Earth’s resources

This is because its lack of an atmosphere also means a lack of friction. Friction is what causes objects on Earth to slow down without a constant force to counteract it. If a vehicle were to turn off its engines in an environment without friction, such as space, the vehicle would keep moving at its current speed due to Newton’s Law of Inertia. One scientist, Arthur C. Clarke, proposed building a long track on the Moon that would essentially shoot the crew or cargo towards Mars. The rocket would only need small boosters for reentry into Mars, and the track would only need to be 30 kilometers long to keep passengers under the Ten G’s astronauts experience during a rocket launch into space (Thoughty2). The technologies being used in Maglev trains could be integrated to the propel spacecraft down the track. Using electromagnets, crews could float the vessel above the track while also pulling it forward; which would save more fuel and room on-board the spacecraft. Some scientists, such as Paul Spudis, also support using the Moon as a training base as well. In an interview, he stated, “We can train crews. We don’t necessarily want the first crew on Mars to be ‘rookies.’ We can train crews on the Moon.” (Ball). Since Mars has a lesser gravity than Earth, it would seem only logical to exploit the Moon as a way to prepare future colonists. Now all they have to worry about is landing on the surface of the Red Planet