Travel to Mars v Quality of Education

The elected leaders of US society have financial decisions in front of them which will have long-standing impacts on society. 

One of these financial decisions is whether or not to fund multiple missions to Mars in order to create a secondary planet for the human race or to utilize those funds to improve the quality of life and the education system in the USA/ Earth.

MARS-

It is estimated that a multiple missions to Mars will have the following costs:

·       Robotic Missions- Curiosity Rover (~$2.5B), Perseverance Rover (~$2.7B), InSight Lander (~$850M), MAVEN, ExoMars, etc (~3B) or a total of ~$9B

·       Spacecraft Development and Launch- NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS)- ~$2B/ launch, Spacecraft- ~$2-3B/ launch, Crewed Mission- ~$5-10B/ launch

·       Mars Habitat Development- ~$10-20B

·       Human Mission(s) to Mars- Training and support of crew- ~$4-5B.  Fuel and Propulsion- ~$5-10B.  Operations on Mars- $5-10B.  Return to Earth- ~$5-10B  or a total of ~$19-25B.

·       Mission Support and Logistics- ~$3-5B/ mission.

·       Estimated total costs $40-80B/ mission.  Multiple missions will be needed to establish a base (minimum estimate of 10 missions= $400-800B).

EDUCATION-

It is difficult to determine an exact amount of money that would be necessary to dramatically improve the quality of public education in the USA, as there are many factors that contribute to the overall quality of education.

However, experts suggest that an increase in funding of at least $100 billion per year would be necessary to make significant improvements in areas such as reducing class sizes, increasing teacher salaries, providing more resources and support for students with special needs, and improving school infrastructure. This would also allow for investments in professional development for teachers, technology upgrades, and curriculum enhancements. Ultimately, the exact amount needed would depend on the specific needs of each school district and state.

As management of the extraordinary US public debt (~$37T) becomes increasingly necessary for the US government to regain control of its balance sheet, there will be a need for spending decisions to occur.

Our view is that manned space travel to Mars, and its funding, should be left to the US oligarchs and not utilize US taxpayer money to fund. 

Rather, it is important to improve the level of quality education/ critical thinking capabilities of the US population for US democracy to survive.