Challenge

According to NASA projections, in the year 2018, a complete habitat with air locks, supply systems, food and so on, should be sent to Mars. One year later, the first research team should land on Mars, and in 2020, an unmanned freighter flight is expected to deliver more equipment, including inflatable green houses, a Mars vehicle, various construction, and drilling devices. Two years later, in 2022, the next crew should arrive and soon, the first Mars base will be operating routinely. Towards 2040, the first settlers could land and begin the colonization of the red planet.

The Mars program is a technical challenge and a bubbling source of new knowledge. With its legions of scientists, engineers and technicians, it will give a dramatic push to the demand for teaching staff and teaching material. With their highly-technological activities, manned space flight has enriched evolution more than any other undertaking to the benefit of all of mankind.

The conquest of Mars is a challenge that cannot be emulated anywhere on Earth. From Mars, the Earth will look like a blue marble, our common home. Viewing the Earth from a distance like that will instil a feeling of unity in us. We will no longer be troubled by racial or religious differences. The conquest of Mars also demands a spiritual and political maturity. We have to learn to cooperate because one country alone can never deal with the technical and financial problems involved in a manned station on the neighboring planets. Finally, the settlement of Mars will ensure that the Earth will never become a place where homo sapiens dies out.

"Mysteries of the World" will show the various trajectories which will take us from the Earth to Mars. We will project sharp color pictures from the surface of Mars taken by several NASA robots. NASA animations will demonstrate a manned flight to Mars. What will this first Mars habitat look like? How will the pioneers live? Where will they get oxygen? Food? How will the Mars greenhouses work? How will humans protect themselves from harmful radiation? Will there be a daily Mars TV-broadcast to Earth? Where do we go from there? Further into the Universe?