A look at the crossroads of science and philosophy: passionate about the conquest of space, Jacques Arnould, 59, has built a reflection drawn, in particular, from his years spent in the Dominican order.
This agricultural engineer, doctor in the history of science and in theology, left the dress in 2011. At a time when Perseverance, the NASA robot, begins its mission on Mars, this expert in charge of ethical questions at the National Center of spatial studies (Cnes) analyzes the frenzy of exploration of the distant red planet.
What does our fascination with Mars reveal?
JACQUES ARNOULD.
While the Earth returns to rooting, the sky attracts us and frightens us.
The space adventure is a form of technical response to this fascination.
Until the 17th century, it was fair to believe that our destiny was written in the stars.
Since the 20th century, man has chosen to write his own destiny in the stars.
We don't just watch, we go.
Is this race to such a distant planet really reasonable?
There are several ways of looking at it.
We can consider that exploring space with robots, that is to say without endangering human life, is reasonable.
We can also think of the precautions taken by scientists, who sterilize anything that can touch Martian soil in order to avoid any biological contamination.
More fundamentally, I believe that these missions are reasonable when their objective is well established.
There, the challenge is to find traces of past life on Mars, an important element for understanding the origin of life on Earth.
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We are making incredible efforts to approach Mars as the Earth degrades before our eyes ...
But the knowledge that we can acquire there precisely helps to better take into account the situation of our planet!
Earth and Mars are twins with different destinies.
Understanding how a star can evolve to become either like the Earth or a great desert, that enlightens us.
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Wouldn't the money invested in space research be better used, for example, in ecological transition?
States are ready to invest a few hundred million euros to try to provide some answers to this question: is there life elsewhere?
The origin of life drives us humans.
Literally: it gives us a certain soul, motivates us, shakes us up.
That's enough value to invest in.
Moreover, let's not forget that global warming or global change are recent notions.
Space has made its contribution to this awareness.
Maintaining the dream of colonizing Mars can also feed the illusion of a potential "planet B" ...
Russian scientist Constantin Tsiolkovsky said:
Earth is the cradle of humanity, but you don't spend your whole life in a cradle
.
It was at the beginning of the 20th century.
Our extraterrestrial research has since made us understand that our planet is, until proven guilty, unique.
Its functioning is complex, fragile, extremely difficult to reproduce.
To be able to support seven astronauts in the ISS
(Editor's note: crews have taken turns in the international space station for 20 years)
, thousands of scientists and experts are constantly mobilized.
The idea that space technology could offer humanity an exit solution is an illusion.
On the contrary, space is warning us: take care of the Earth.
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"Dreams of Mars": goodbye planet A, direction planet B?
What have we learned from our space conquests?
These steps forward, which are also side steps, have enabled us to look at ourselves better.
I think of these images taken by the Voyager 1 space probe in the 1990s. The Earth appears as a point in a kind of great cosmic dust.
All humanity, in its greatest and most terrible, is found in this little point lost in the infinite.
We are all there but we are just that.
It is a beautiful lesson that we can receive.