"The Earth is a tiny and fragile world." - Carl Sagan
However wonderful our home planet may be, we the people cannot deny that Earth will not be able to support us indefinitely. Be it at nature's hand, or the hand of our own ignorance and greed, our current home will one day be destroyed. It is fortunate, however, that our nearest planetary neighbor could provide so bountifully for us. If we choose to invest in it. If the American people commits itself to completely covering the Martian surface with efficient solar technologies, we could generate the necessary electrically energy to turn the iron in the Martian core into a powerful electromagnet. This would a first, and in many ways necessary, step towards the human colonization of Mars, the second home we'll someday know.