Humanity has always reached the "stars" and the moon and now it is Mars. Stars explode balls of gas like the sun and cannot land on them. Man went to the Moon in 1969, and from that mission learned to live in space for a short time successfully. Colonizing Mars will be possible in the near future thanks to scientists' understanding of life in space, technological advances and affordable costs. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayMars is an ideal planet to establish a colony. Its location, temperature and availability of water make this planet the first choice of scientists to inhabit (Orwig 2). The Earth is not immune to natural disasters (Orwig 2). 165 million years ago, an asteroid hit the Earth causing such pollution that the dinosaurs became extinct (Orwig 2). This shows how vulnerable we are to mass extinction in the future. Even if the new technology fails in the search for Mars, it could be useful in other areas (Orwig 3). NASA launched the Hubble Telescope into space to send clearer images of space (Orwig 3). Unfortunately, the images received were blurry, however, another scientist was able to use the correct mathematical solution for the Hubble telescope in today's X-ray machines. The result was a better image for detecting breast cancer (Orwig 3). Man has always been pushed to understand this universe more fully and that is why he explores new areas. Humans tend to move and establish communities, towns and cities. NASA believes that the mission to Mars is comparable to that of the first American pioneers or the moon landing (Knapton 2). Both were great achievements of humanity. Just as the purpose of the early explorers' journey was to establish a colony, the same is true for Mars (Knapton 2). Early explorers sent out scouts and reported their findings to see if a colony could or should be established. NASA has been sending probes and robots to Mars for the last 40 years (Knapton 4). These probes discovered salt water and ancient lakes (Knapton 4). NASA will continue to send probes and robots to learn more about the possibility of past, present, or future life on Mars (Knapton 4). If the fastest probe to date traveled in a straight line, it would take 162 days to reach Mars (Red 4). It would have traveled 33.9 million miles or 54.6 million kilometers (Redd 3). Scientists base these numbers on arrival time and not launch time (Redd 5). Since the planets are always moving towards and away from the sun at different times, these calculations are also constantly changing. Another big challenge is the financial aspect of colonizing Mars. Elon Musk spoke at the International Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 2016 (Glaser 1). He expressed his plans on how to finance the colonization of Mars (Glaser 3). One problem was convincing the American government to contribute funding (Glaser 3). The public might argue that these funds would be better used to feed the poor and improve schools or communities rather than sending people to Mars. Musk summarized that the first 12 astronauts would cost $12 billion (Glaser 3). However, if one million people signed up, the cost would drop to $200,000 per person (Glaser 3). There are seven billion people on earth, so finding a million people to pay for the trip of a lifetime is reasonable. Other factors also addressed were how to sustain life, shelter and return to the land (Ghose 7). The International Space Station has taught us many things.