The European Space Agency (ESA) is planning to establish a manned scientific station on the Moon within the next twenty-five years. Such a station would be a great example of the benefits of international cooperation. The ESA would build the base with money and help from its fourteen member nations and maybe Canada and Japan as well. The United States is also heading a project that relies on international cooperation. Plans to build the space station Freedom are being made with the ESA, Canada, Japan, and Russia.
But such international cooperation still leaves plenty of nations out of the space picture entirely -- the great majority are absorbed in solving critical problems on the ground. And it still leaves plenty of room for fighting among the nations involved.
Some people feel, for example, that the ESA's plans for the Moon challenge America's position in space. The ESA itself doesn't want to work with the Americans because its members feel that NASA and Congress don't make firm enough commitments. And Russia's ability to add to international space missions is limited right now to selling its expertise. In other words, some of the cooperation seems to be competition.
Under such circumstances, if people ever intend to launch a manned mission to Mars, we might need more than international cooperation. We may need a global effort--one planet going to visit another planet.
Going to Mars would involve tremendous costs, time, and knowledge that no single country or small group of countries could handle alone. A global effort is also fitting because ultimately a mission to Mars must be a human mission, one for all people.
But how will we build such a worldwide effort? Global cooperation and a manned mission to Mars might be the next great chicken and egg story: we will need the cooperation to launch the mission, but we will probably need the mission to get the cooperation.
