{"id":96,"date":"2009-07-20T19:06:48","date_gmt":"2009-07-20T19:06:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayethics\/2009\/07\/mission-to-mars-humanitys-next-giant-leap-or-the-last-thing-we-need-to-be-worrying-about.html"},"modified":"2009-07-20T19:06:48","modified_gmt":"2009-07-20T19:06:48","slug":"mission-to-mars-humanitys-next-giant-leap-or-the-last-thing-we-need-to-be-worrying-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/07\/mission-to-mars-humanitys-next-giant-leap-or-the-last-thing-we-need-to-be-worrying-about.html","title":{"rendered":"Mission To Mars: Mankind’s Next Giant Leap, Or The Last Thing We Need To Be Worrying About?"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"moon<\/span><\/p>\n

As human beings, it’s in our natures to dream big. And as a
\nspecies, we’ve done some astonishing things. Today, for instance, marks the 40th anniversary of
\nthe first lunar landing and moon walk–a mission we achieved, in part, to impress
\nand intimidate our cold-war rivals.
\n 
\nNow the astronauts from the Apollo missions (especially Buzz Aldrin<\/a>) are publicly urging President Obama to focus on the next great
\nmission–putting a person on Mars<\/a>. A stirring prospect, certainly. An opportunity to invest in our better selves, undoubtedly. A challenge both epic and praiseworthy, without question. But right now?<\/span> With healthcare, two wars, a recession, Swine Flu<\/a> and lord-knows-what-else on our plates?<\/span><\/p>\n

Is it our moral imperative to push
\nforward and pioneer this almost unimaginable frontier, fulfilling our great
\nhuman destiny as explorers (and conquerers), or are we already biting off far
\nmore than we can chew with terrestrial concerns?<\/span><\/p>\n

What do you think?<\/span><\/span> Boldly go, or just say no?<\/span><\/span> (I’m all for it, but not at the expense of my medical insurance!)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As human beings, it’s in our natures to dream big. And as a species, we’ve done some astonishing things. Today, for instance, marks the 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing and moon walk–a mission we achieved, in part, to impress and intimidate our cold-war rivals.   Now the astronauts from the Apollo missions (especially…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6,29,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-hillary-fields","category-current-events","category-science","category-technology"],"yoast_head":"\nMission To Mars: Mankind's Next Giant Leap, Or The Last Thing We Need To Be Worrying About? - Everyday Ethics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/07\/mission-to-mars-humanitys-next-giant-leap-or-the-last-thing-we-need-to-be-worrying-about.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mission To Mars: Mankind's Next Giant Leap, Or The Last Thing We Need To Be Worrying About? - Everyday Ethics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As human beings, it’s in our natures to dream big. And as a species, we’ve done some astonishing things. 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She attended St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she studied classics and philosophy, and then respectfully declined to spend the rest of her life in an ivory tower. Instead, she turned to the life of a writer and editor, penning three romance novels published by St. Martin's Press and contributing features to such periodicals as Cosmopolitan magazine. Her fascination with the moral dilemmas that crop up in everyday life--and the many intriguing ways people handle them--has always colored her writings. Now, that interest is leading her to take the discussion online; where, hopefully, the addition of reader feedback will bring these quotidian quandaries--and their potential solutions--vibrantly to life. When she's not plumbing the ethical mysteries of humanity, her passions include cooking (especially baking), origami, kittens, reading, watching really bad television and playing online scrabble. (And no, she doesn't cheat... much.)","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/author\/hfields"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}