Mars - Would You Take a One Way Trip??

[brantuk]

Apparently there have been 200,000 volunteers for a one way trip to Mars in 2023 to set up a colony - which strikes me as slightly unbalanced.

Worse - there are investors, organisations, and individuals who would contribute to sending them there by being involved in the work and finance for the mission.

Is this just a dressed up form of "assisted suicide"? is it "cold blooded murder...." ? or is it just like "relocating" to take on a new lifestyle and job?

I'd be interested to know what everyone thinks about it....... and if anyone here has, or would, consider joining the mission. See here:

http://www.disclose.tv/news/NASA_Mars_mission_a_oneway_trip_Any_volunteers/81160

[baggywrinkle]

Are there clear skies......that might tempt some.

[Alien 13]

I have allways wondered about this i suppose if you could send enough hardware up to get things started then at some point you would need humans to put it all together and kick start terraforming etc ready for the second wave.

It does remind me a bit though of the "B Ark" in hitchhikers guide to the galaxy.

Alan

[baggywrinkle]

On a more serious note though it is an interesting question.

In the military they ask for volunteers and even if the odds are stacked then they still get volunteers.

The Mars mission can only be thought of as a one way trip. Not assisted suicide because those folk with a medical condition need to be weeded out, you do not want them popping their mortal coil on passage as the trip requires a full compliment of warm bodies.

However if  properly done it will be a one way trip but with a prospect of life at the other end. Not too dissimilar to those people who made passage to Australia and NZ in the 1800's as colonists, most of them knew it was a one way trip.

So they need to pick people not with a death wish but rather those that firmly believe they will survive the passage and die on Mars. They need to look for survivors and those with that mentality.

Would I go? If I was younger it would be an interesting prospect, but at 58 I am beginning to like my coco and slippers!

[ronin]

Difference with going to Australia and New Zealand was that once ther you could go outside and walk round. Other then a few deadly snakes, spider and the Australian cricket team you could live there. Mars is a little different.

We haven't actually found deposits of water in any extent, it would need processing anywway, temperature is a bit low, -55, and there isn't an atmosphere to breathe. What atmosphere there is is 6/1000 of the earths (bit thin) and almost no oxygen, so extracting O2 to breathe is not going to be simple.

Sending people there is easy, expecting them to actually do anything means them and a lot of support equipment. Whatever they get there in will not be able to land, other then crash into the surface.

A one-way trip with reasonable support and equipment once there is one thing. This however looks more like aim you at Mars and watch you go splat.

[knobby]

Just spent 30 minutes listening to the wife and kids arguing about leaving the toilet seat up , not flushing, not putting clothes in laundry, not helping , ...

I'd go tomorrow ;-)

[sbooder]

Miss the chance to be a pioneer...count me in.  I have the feeling though, they are not looking for slightly overweight wine drinking smokers, unless of course I could take 20 years supply of Old Holborn & 3000 cases of wine with me?

[jason.p]

At my age I doubt if I'd get there anyway let alone get back:rolleyes:

Sent from my GT-P5110 using Tapatalk

[JamesF]

I can't see it as a suicide mission.  The people who end up going, should it happen, are likely to be determined, very smart, self-reliant, mentally very strong and physically fit.  They'll also probably have to live with their fellow crew members for some time before the trip and get on well with them.  It's hard to see such people being willing to die a long way from everything else they know without getting a lot in exchange.

Of course people may well die in the attempt and that's something we need to learn to deal with.  As Walt Cunningham pointed out the other night on Stargazing Live, the public isn't very tolerant of astronauts dying whereas he's known a fair number of aircraft test pilots who have died and no-one outside the industry really bats an eyelid.  I also wonder how the public would react if one of the people on the mission became ill beyond the ability of the rest to treat their condition.  Would it be acceptable for that person to take their own life?  Or for the other crew members to assist them in doing so?

James

[sbooder]

I can't see it as a suicide mission.  The people who end up going, should it happen, are likely to be determined, very smart, self-reliant, mentally very strong and physically fit.  They'll also probably have to live with their fellow crew members for some time before the trip and get on well with them.  It's hard to see such people being willing to die a long way from everything else they know without getting a lot in exchange.

Of course people may well die in the attempt and that's something we need to learn to deal with.  As Walt Cunningham pointed out the other night on Stargazing Live, the public isn't very tolerant of astronauts dying whereas he's known a fair number of aircraft test pilots who have died and no-one outside the industry really bats an eyelid.  I also wonder how the public would react if one of the people on the mission became ill beyond the ability of the rest to treat their condition.  Would it be acceptable for that person to take their own life?  Or for the other crew members to assist them in doing so?

James

It is odd how we are willing to send thousands to their death in war over the rights to oil and land but unwilling to accept death in the betterment and future of the human race.  I will never get people.

In the words of Brian Blessed "I WANT TO GO TO MARS, WHY HAVEN'T WE GONE TO MARS?"

[Pig]

I have done a few thousand miles of mountain bike riding including some quite dangerous black routes over the years so I wouldn't class myself not having the nerve, I must admit having faith in the bikes capability to withstand the stresses etc  is a big contributor. However, I personally could not even entertain going on a one way journey anywhere without my family and definitely not one where the life expectancy duration is an unknown   There are a few people I would happily recommend though

[tingting44]

I wouldnt go, id miss my kids too much, cant live without the little beggers tbh, ill take pleasure watching on tv tho from my home comforts 

  Would it be acceptable for that person to take their own life?  Or for the other crew members to assist them in doing so?

James

That would be a no, murder is still murder what ever planet you are on.

[Cath]

Spending 6 months or more on an Earth orbiting space station is VERY different to what's being planned here.

I have no desire to go on a what could well be an intensely unpleasant trip. Human beings are certainly not the most stable of creatures, but when you start packing a number of them into a confined space with no hope of escape but death, things could become all so very 'serious' as it were.

I'd have no objection to being able to choose who to send on this one way trip though

Would it be acceptable for that person to take their own life?  Or for the other crew members to assist them in doing so?

Not got a problem with that at all - so long as it's the participant is the one who desires it and not those around them. If we can't accept a situation like that, then why are we doing it with all the other life forms on the planet?

[JamesF]

It is odd how we are willing to send thousands to their death in war over the rights to oil and land but unwilling to accept death in the betterment and future of the human race.  I will never get people.

A cynic might suggest that when the public sees a potential direct benefit to themselves, other people dying in their name becomes far more acceptable.

James

[Mr Spock]

Mars is ok, if you can stand the food there...

[Cath]

It is odd how we are willing to send thousands to their death in war over the rights to oil and land but unwilling to accept death in the betterment and future of the human race.  I will never get people.

If logic is what you're looking for, then it might be better to look somewhere other than man kind.

Their's a lot to be said for natural selection

[Alien 13]

I think it would need a lot of infrastructure and a good supply chain in place to be attempted even the early colonisers here had that.

It cant be that hard to get somthing the size of the ISS in permanent orbits around the moon and mars 1st or even a landing with one, at least that would allow someone to survive a bit longer than an hour or so.

Alan

[JamesF]

That would be a no, murder is still murder what ever planet you are on.

How do you think they should deal with a situation where someone was injured or ill beyond hope of recovery, even putting the remainder of the crew at greater risk of death?  This is the sort of question that someone will have to answer if they go.  There are a lot of really unpleasant and drawn-out ways to die   Would you suggest that we don't go until that eventuality is exceptionally unlikely?  Are there any other options?

I guess we also have to consider the right of the "last person alive" to take their own life should they wish to.  Or does the act of sending one crew mean we're committed to sending more people after them until we reach the point of being able to do a return mission to bring everyone back?  Would it even be possible to bring people back if they'd been there for any length of time, I wonder?  Mars is not a big planet.  The gravity is about one third of the Earth's.  The physiological effects of being there for a few years may make a return to Earth all but impossible.

I assume these issues must have been considered during the Moon missions, but the world is a different place now.

James

[DaveGarland]

My mother-in-law has volunteered to go.... She doesn't actually know yet, but she has

Seriously though I think all this is a very bad idea. Nobody really knows what that kind of isolation in such a hostile environment with without any hope would do to someone. How would it feel ten years from now to see people desperately pleading to be rescued knowing that they will never be. I think it's far better for us to be a little patient and wait until we have every thing in place for a return trip.

[tekkydave]

There was 2 of the short-listed on BBC news this morning. They seemed like clever, intelligent people. I suspect the people we need to send first will have to be tough not clever. The clever ones will be back on Earth directing.

[theclearskiesofthemoon]

My mother-in-law has volunteered to go.... She doesn't actually know yet, but she has

Seriously though I think all this is a very bad idea. Nobody really knows what that kind of isolation in such a hostile environment with without any hope would do to someone. How would it feel ten years from now to see people desperately pleading to be rescued knowing that they will never be. I think it's far better for us to be a little patient and wait until we have every thing in place for a return trip.

They are selecting people to make sure they aren't the type to desperately plead for their lifes. Just send them. It might be a one way trip when they send them up. But even planning the first trip will lead to new developments and the show they plan will earn enough money so that in a few years they can come pick them up if they choose to.

That is, if they don't all die of radiation poisoning on the journey to Mars...

[DaveGarland]

Yes I know that they are selecting people who feel they can cope. But my point is we simply don't know what that kind of isolation will do to even the strongest minds. People marooned on desert Islands can at least wonder along the beach and look out to sea hoping to see a ship appear on the horizon. On Mars that simply won't be the case. They'd literally be imprisoned.

Yup I agree that once we have people there, there would be an incentive to return them at some stage. But there could be no guarantee of that. Surely it is better to sort out the return trip first.

[Naemeth]

I'd be tempted if I could take my scopes and have some way of shielding the optics from dust - and if I had access to power, and an Earth --> Mars based courier .

To be honest, it's something I'd love to do. Being one of the very first to step on Martian soil and make history by making a new life on a new planet.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

I just see these plans to kickstart Mars exploration as wildly unrealistic, premature and scientifically unjustifiable. I'm also concerned about the ethics of sending people on a mission so likely to do them harm, due to radiation exposure and a long period spent in microgravity.

Lets take expense and scientific justification first. Payload is the bottom line, for the same cost as sending a few people and their supplies it would be possible to support dozens of robotic missions. Personally, I'd like us to make our top priority investigating the possibility of life on the Icy moons, rather than a flag-planting mission. As for starting an actual colony, that would be an order of magnitude more expensive.

Now lets look at the practicalities. There have been a few attempts to build a self-sustaining sealed ecosystem here on Earth, but they have resulted in failure. This is the kind of technology that would make manned exploration beyond Earth orbit more practical by reducing payload requirements, so should be seen as a prerequisite. Before we can learn to live on Mars we need to learn how to live in Antarctica. This is what I mean by premature.

As Walt Cunningham pointed out the other night on Stargazing Live, the public isn't very tolerant of astronauts dying whereas he's known a fair number of aircraft test pilots who have died and no-one outside the industry really bats an eyelid.

It's not so much the fact of the deaths that bother me, riding a rocket is inherently risky; however, the circumstances behind the most recent losses - the two shuttle disasters - certainly do. The disconnect between the NASA management and engineers is sobering, as Richard Feynman's appendix to the Rogers Commission shows.

[rowan46]

I also am of the mind they should go if they want and of the opinion that it is something more akin to the early settlement  of australia and america  than assisted suicide. By the time they are ready to go the colonists will have some chance of survival although it will be slim