QUESTION:
Can you please answer me the following question as precisely as 
possible: Is the NASA's mission to the planet Mars an utopian project 
or an essential scientifc research program for a better understanding 
of the universe?

ANSWER from Rich Hogen on March 13, 2000:
It's hard to imagine that anyone could think NASA's exploration of Mars is
anything BUT a serious scientific research program essential for a better
understanding of the universe.  Of all the planets, including Venus, Mars
today is most similar to Earth.  We need to understand the details of how it
"died".  The fact that Mars does not have the erosional processes active on
Earth means it is easier to learn some essential information about "planets
like ours" on Mars than on Earth, where almost everything on the surface is
very young.  But that's less important than other factors.  We still have a
long way to go to understand Earth's complex interdependent systems (carbon
cycle, coupling to the Sun, coupling to ice ages and albedo changes,
coupling to life), and comparative planetology with Mars continues to
increase our understanding in these areas.  There's good reason to believe
that Mars once had surface conditions similar to conditions Earth
experienced long ago, including water which appears to remain on Mars frozen
within the crust.  This means there really is a chance that Mars had life in
the past and may still have life and/or fossil remains of earlier life.  For
these reasons and more Mars is an extremely valuable place of study in
humankind's quest for understanding of its place, its past and its future in
this universe.

Venus is also similar to Earth at fundamental levels, but there are several
reasons it seems Mars is a better target for research.  Venus is so
inhospitable a place that exploring that planet is enormously more difficult
than exploring Mars (landers on Venus are crushed and melted after only a
few hours by the thick, heavy and caustic atmosphere and the high
temperature at the surface).  And Venus suffers from the opposite surface
condition with respect to erosion.  The thick atmosphere of Venus and its
catastrophic crustal overturn events (mechanism for releasing heat of
formation) with active surface interactions mean there is little on the
surface of Venus, if anything, remaining from long ago.

Not only a source of information regarding planets like ours, Mars as a
place, being a potentially livable world, also represents "the next valley",
a place where human beings can go to live and work.  In my opinion, shared
by many others, It has been a vital, critical part of human civilization to
be able to test new ideas in new places.  It has also been vital for the
spread of life to be able to fill new niches.  Mars is the next niche for
life, and many humans believe we should spread life to Mars.  At the
individual level, in my opinion exploration helps in the development of
wisdom and intellect; the alternative is stagnation which breeds
protectionism, etc.

You decide.