‘The Martian’ raises serious questions over the feasibility of a manned mission to Mars
Close on the heels of the release of the movie The Martian – and the discovery that the red planet contains liquid water – Nasa has unveiled a bold plan for getting humans to Mars within the next few decades.
The timing may seem odd. In the film, an astronaut is stranded on Mars and has to be rescued. The expenditure is astronomical, risks are enormous and just about everything that can go wrong does.
It’s such a realistic portrayal of the dynamics of a manned mission to the red planet that the film hardly looks like an advertisement for Nasa. Yet it is. By linking its Mars aspirations to a story of a mission gone wrong, the space agency sought to highlight the challenges and cost of manned space travel.
However, the film raises questions as to whether we are ready yet for a journey to Mars. Is a manned Mars mission worth the expense? The decision is ours.