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I was happy to read the write up on ‘Mars beckons’ in the GulfWeekly.

Ever since the days of ancient civilisations, the red planet has stirred interest in human beings.

Because of its fiery red colour, it was associated with gods such as Ares, the Greek god of war, whom the Romans called Mars; Horus, the sky god by the Egyptians; Nergal, king of conflict by the Babylonians and Karthikeya, the Indian warrior god. But from last century’s mysterious fictional Martians to the present day Mars Rover 2020, we have come a long way.

Stephen Hawking insisted on the necessity to explore the possibility of space migration as in the Interstellar movie. He warned that the danger to earth dwellers may come either by asteroids, nuclear wars or some new virus.

He gave a time limit of hundred years for human beings to move out of earth. Space exploration which was once considered extravagant has become necessary for mankind’s survival.

So we either become a multi-planetary species, or take the risk of becoming extinct.

It is satisfying to see young students take interest in this subject and I congratulate the prize winners of the NSSA competition who have carried out their project with all the main components required at Mars.

As children have less preconceived ideas, they are good innovators.  Recently, I listened to the Indian students selected for the ‘Red Rover Goes to Mars project’ in a BBC programme and they talked about the details of the parachute landing on Mars.

All of them, just like these Bahraini students, want to become astronauts and man a space ship.

As Mars has many similarities to Earth, it becomes the most suitable permanent outpost within the solar system for us.

To establish it as a self-sustaining colony, we will have to adjust both our physical and psychological needs to suit the prevailing condition in Mars and also convert the Martian environment to suit our requirement.

Stephen Hawking even predicted a separate Martian culture and language may evolve. Hawking’s views dovetailed with those of Elon Musk and the billionaire entrepreneur plans to build a city in Mars. He plans to send six cargo space ships by 2024 to Mars as part of his $10 trillion project and subsequently move human beings by his brain-child space X rockets.