Robert Zubrin, the founder of the International Mars Society, as well as an engineer and best-selling author, discussed "The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must." The talk was brought to campus by the student organization SpaceTalk.
Zubrin asserted that humans can reach Mars within a decade, and he outlined a plan in which humans could settle the red planet. He said the plan is the cheapest and safest one that has ever been seriously proposed.
"It's not about building giant spaceships," Zubrin said. "It's about building packages."
Zubrin's plan includes sending an unmanned shuttle to Mars and then creating methane fuel -- made from elements already in the Martian atmosphere -- to be used in a return vehicle and a land rover. When humans arrive after the next launch, they already would have a way to explore the planet, as well as a way to come back to Earth.
"The ability to make fuels on Mars is the key to making the mission cheap, but also it is the key to making the mission effective," Zubrin said. "Travel light and live off the land. That's the way we explore on Earth; that's the way we should explore on Mars."
The United States is better prepared financially, militarily and socially now than it ever has been to explore Mars, Zubrin said.
"From a technical point of view we are much better prepared to send people to Mars than we were in 1961 when (President John) Kennedy proposed sending people to the moon," he said. "In 1961, we didn't even know if people could eat in space."
Freshman Kate Harris, the founder and president of SpaceTalk, said she agrees that human exploration of Mars is a realistic goal.
"One thing I find so compelling about space exploration, specifically to Mars, is that it's a complete unknown, a totally new frontier," Harris said. "It sounds very science fiction-y, but it's amazing to think this is in reach."
