Sasha’s Story. Part 2: Disappointment

"I want to go!" Sasha declared, as she handed the helmet to the attendant. "I want to be the first person to walk on Mars!"

"Whoa! I think you need to finish school first," her Dad replied, "Besides, no-one really thinks we're going to get the funding approved for a landing mission, not in the middle of a recession." He immediately knew he'd made a mistake.

The look on Sasha's face was a mixture of anger, surprise, and sadness. Her hands were on her hips, which was always a bad sign.

"I'm sorry, Sasha. I didn't mean to sound so harsh, but it's really complicated, and involves reasons I'm sure you'd consider boring. The main problem is it would be really, really expensive, and many people think we could use the money for better things here on Earth."

"But if we can land on Phobos, why not Mars?" Sasha asked, hands still on hips, not wanting to believe there could be any good reason at all.

"Well, to be honest it's only 2025 and we don't yet live in the science-fiction future you see in TV programs. Landing humans on Mars is very hard to do – much harder than on Phobos – there are many engineering problems we really haven't solved yet, so it would be very dangerous. And since I'm a big fan of robotics, I'd much rather see them do the dirty work on Mars than put my favorite daughter in jeopardy."

Sasha's arms fell to her sides, but she wasn't defeated yet. "I don't understand. Why is it more difficult to land on Mars? And why don't people want to spend the money? I mean, how could we come this far if people don't think it's worth it? My friends in Space Club at school say we're basically living out Star Trek. After all, we did 'boldly go on a five year mission to explore strange new worlds.' We even found fossils of ancient microbes on Mars! What if there's life still there now, maybe underground..."

"Those are all good questions", her dad replied. "and I'll try and answer them as best I can..."

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