(CNN)Elon Musk has built a $12 billion company in an endeavor to pave the way to Mars for humanity. He insists that Mars is a "long-term insurance policy" for "the light of consciousness" in the face of climate change, extinction events, and our recklessness with technology. On the other hand, astronaut Chris Hadfield is skeptical: "Humanity is not going extinct," he told me. He added: "There's no great compelling reason to go, apart from curiosity, and that's not going to be enough to sustain the immense cost necessary with the technology that exists right now." But I question our future, stuck here on Earth. Our environment is a highly balanced system and we are the destabilizing element. Pursuing "green" initiatives is no long-term solution to the wall we're hurtling towards, they're speed bumps. If this is where humankind is destined to remain, then we shall find ourselves fighting over whatever is left of it.
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Pursuing "green" initiatives is no long-term solution to the wall we're hurtling towards, says Ashley Dove-Jay
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Dove-Jay: Launching missions to Mars would use less energy than those to the Moon
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Mars program certainly has challenges to overcome, but technological gap between us and Mars is smaller than it was for the Moon program in 1960s, he adds
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It takes about 50% more energy to put something on the surface of the Moon than it does on @placeholder.
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The @placeholder's soil is not fertile, water is as rare, it has no effective atmosphere, and a 708-hour day.
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As the majority of this is received in transit between planets, with proper radiological protection on the ship, it would actually be (radiologically speaking) healthier for an astronaut to live on @placeholder with a radiation dose of 0.10 sieverts per year than to smoke on Earth at 0.16 sieverts per year.
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Even taking empty sandbags, packing them with Martian soil and putting them on the roof would be a simple and effective measure on @placeholder.
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With Martian gravity around a third of that on @placeholder, it would take astronauts a couple of days to acclimatize, and perhaps a few months to fully adapt.
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The spacecraft could be spun in-transit to generate an artificial gravity that slowly decayed, simulating a transition from @placeholder to Mars gravity (and vice versa) over the six-month journey.
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Back contamination: Conversely, the question of whether some Martian plague might accidentally be introduced to @placeholder should be taken seriously -- but not blown out of proportion.
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Any Martian life will have evolved independently and is unlikely to be capable even of interacting with @placeholder life on a molecular level.
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Psychology: Depending on relative orbits, sending a message between @placeholder and Mars can take between three and 22 minutes.