One way ticket to Mars?

Discussion in 'Science & Society' started by cosmictraveler, Oct 28, 2010.

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  1. cosmictraveler

    cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    Hundred Year Starship mission - leave and never come back. NASA is reportedly exploring an idea on how to try to colonize mars.


    The plan - recruit scientists for the hundred year starship mission and explain to astronauts that would travel to Mars on the mission they would get on the space ship knowing they could never come home to Earth again.

    They would be leaving planet Earth forever, Mars would be home and they would live there and die there.

    The UK Daily Mail reveals that the settlers would be sent supplies from Earth, but would go on the understanding that it would be too costly to make the return trip.

    According to PopSci.Com Simon "Pete" Worden said NASA contributed $100,000 to the project and DARPA kicked in $1 million.

    http://www.nationalledger.com/lifestyle/article_272635652.shtml



    So why not just wait for a few more years when the scientists can get to Mars and back within a few months instead of this very dangerous type of thinking? So many things could go wrong with this idea and with no way to return the astronauts/cosmonauts they don't have much of a chance in living very long under those conditions. Whu ever comes up with these ideas shouldn't be on the payroll but fired instead.

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    cosmictraveler, Oct 28, 2010
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  3. Gremmie

    Gremmie "Happiness is a warm gun" Valued Senior Member

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    Or, just be the first ones sent on the one way mission.

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    Gremmie, Oct 28, 2010
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  5. spidergoat

    spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    I think it's a great idea. It would reduce the cost of the mission by half, and there are no shortage of volunteers.
     
    spidergoat, Oct 28, 2010
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  7. phlogistician

    phlogistician Banned Banned

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    FFS Dude, do you think Chuck Yeager expected every flight to be a success?

    What happened to the pioneering spirit?

    Some people like taking risks. As an extreme sportsman myself, I kind of understand why someone might volunteer for such a mission.
     
    phlogistician, Oct 29, 2010
    #4
  8. cosmictraveler

    cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    There's a big difference in taking a risk and committing suicide and anyone who knowingly travelers to Mars without a way to return is committing suicide and people should get rid of anyone who suggests such things. To endanger our fellow citizens by not having a way to return them home is about as stupid of an idea as ever I've heard!
     
    cosmictraveler, Oct 29, 2010
    #5
  9. Fraggle Rocker

    Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    Some people have faith in their ability to make a project successful. Apparently you don't, so you certainly wouldn't want to be on that mission. They'll be in constant contact with home and we can send them pretty much anything they ask for if it's smaller than a 747. We know enough about the Martian environment to prepare them for it, so the biggest risk is a medical problem, and that's pretty much true no matter where you go.
    No, sending them to war is.

    You have to bear in mind that once your body has completely adapted to lower gravity, it is virtually impossible to come back to earth. You lose bone and muscle mass and that's a one-way deal, at least with today's state of the art in medicine and biology. They'd probably have to spend the rest of their life in a wheelchair, breathing with mechanical assistance--or at least several extremely uncomfortable and humiliating years.

    In addition, once you get accustomed to low gravity and re-tune your reflexes, the lighter load on your body can be a very exhilarating experience. It might lead to a lifetime of endorphin release.

    Now, given that reality, does agreeing to stay on Mars look so stupid? You need to think these things through before you start spouting your amateur-level insults at well-educated professionals who think about these things for a living.
     
    Fraggle Rocker, Oct 29, 2010
    #6
  10. jmpet

    jmpet Valued Senior Member

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    Extreme sportsman? Is that where you give the deer guns?
     
    jmpet, Oct 30, 2010
    #7
  11. Gremmie

    Gremmie "Happiness is a warm gun" Valued Senior Member

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    I read your post, and had to laugh.. Gave "deer rifle" a new meaning..lol
     
    Gremmie, Oct 30, 2010
    #8
  12. keith1

    keith1 Guest

    It would seem appropriate to precede into space in a coordinated methodology of a culmination of Industrial/Mining (profit-producing) enterprises, with scientific directives being achieved in tandom with these efforts.

    Martian project phases would then follow after a logical progression of stabilized:

    Phase 1-- Near-Earth orbit settlements/stations/factories, to develop next gen space-based travel/other technical hurdle studies carried out "in the element environment".

    Phase 2 --Lunar/Asteroid materials/manufacture strategies.

    Space exploration should pay it's way to a degree that no distant outposts are left vulnerable to a "no return" scenario.
     
    keith1, Oct 30, 2010
    #9
  13. cosmictraveler

    cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    I'd say the people that should go are the ones that think it is such a great idea. Let them go for they seem to believe that it is a very good idea.
     
    cosmictraveler, Oct 30, 2010
    #10
  14. Killjoy

    Killjoy Propelling The Farce!! Valued Senior Member

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    Great idea.

    We could borrow a concept from author Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium - empty out the prisons and send all the sons of bitches to Mars. Then, if the colony fails, no big deal, and all the hardware is still sitting there in case somebody else wants to use it later !

    :mufc:
     
    Killjoy, Oct 30, 2010
    #11
  15. Gremmie

    Gremmie "Happiness is a warm gun" Valued Senior Member

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    But, what if the colony doesn't fail? What would we do with all the criminals?

    We'd either have to build prisons on mars, or perform executions en masse.

    I'd prefer the latter personally... Could be the first Pay-Per-View, live from Mars.
     
    Gremmie, Oct 30, 2010
    #12
  16. nietzschefan

    nietzschefan Thread Killer Valued Senior Member

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    I'd go.
     
    nietzschefan, Oct 30, 2010
    #13
  17. nietzschefan

    nietzschefan Thread Killer Valued Senior Member

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    I order you to change your handle on the forum immediately.
     
    nietzschefan, Oct 30, 2010
    #14
  18. cosmictraveler

    cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    Why?

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    I want to travel when it is SAFE to do so and when I can return home when I want to as well. Sending me to my doom doesn't make traveling to the cosmos very appealing, does it to you? :shrug:
     
    cosmictraveler, Oct 30, 2010
    #15
  19. Fraggle Rocker

    Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    The penal colony was hardly his original idea. How do you think Australia was settled? Convicts were even sent to Virginia at one time.
    As I noted earlier, not being able to return home is a special kind of problem. Until we find a habitable planet whose gravity us roughly equal to Earth's, you'll only be able to spend a limited time there before your body loses muscle and bone mass, a process that is nearly irreversible. And even if it's not, how are you going to feel about spending several months or years in excruciatingly high gravity, re-adapting to it? It's very likely that we'll establish a successful colony on Mars or some exoplanet, where the risks of living there are quite low, yet it will still be a one-way trip.
    As I clarified above, not being able to go home isn't the same thing as being sent to your doom.

    In any case, throughout history a lot of people have become fed up with civilized life and moved out to the frontier where they could live or die by their own strength and wits.

    I've often suggested that one of the problems of modern life is that there are no more frontiers. Antarctica is a little too hostile for even the most disenchanted city dwellers, and even Alaska requires a rich man's resources to outfit an expedition for long-term survival. In the past, someone who said, "I hate it here," had the real option of heading out to the Americas, Australia, or several other places, where he could trap muskrats for food and shoe leather, or assimilate into one of the Stone Age tribes that still existed and (by the reckoning of a disenchanted city dweller) had a less complicated life.

    He actually had to make that decision. Anyone who remained in the city was there because he had decided that life wasn't really so bad there once you stop and think about it.

    Today we can pound our chests and insist that we'd rather be out on the frontier where life is harsher but simpler... and we never have to prove that we mean it! As a result many of us spend their lives in limbo, not honestly sure, deep down inside, whether they've got the best deal they can get and should therefore try to make the most of it, or should just continue to irritate the rest of us with their non-stop bitching.

    Gene Roddenberry called space "the final frontier" for good reason. Once we establish colonies there, it will once again be mandatory for anyone who says he doesn't like it here to put his body where his mouth is. He can go there, and leave civilization for those of us who every night before bed kiss that bed, our computers, air conditioners, refrigerators full of ready-made food, domesticated predatory animals, and electronic badges that will take us into a sit-down information-intensive job in the morning instead of hunting game or tilling the soil, in gratitude for not having been born twelve thousand years sooner.
     
    Fraggle Rocker, Oct 30, 2010
    #16
  20. The Esotericist

    The Esotericist Getting the message to Garcia Valued Senior Member

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    There's already people, bases, and civilizations on Mars. I suppose if you want to believe in what the establishment tells you. . . .
     
    The Esotericist, Oct 30, 2010
    #17
  21. Ophiolite

    Ophiolite Valued Senior Member

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    Superchicken would be a suitable choice.
     
    Ophiolite, Nov 1, 2010
    #18
  22. phlogistician

    phlogistician Banned Banned

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    Hunting dumb animals is for fags.

    If I have a mind to shoot at something, I go do paintball, and yes then my prey is as well armed as I am.

    But I surf, snowboard, climb, and engage in martial arts. I have had some scary moments out in the wild. Hasn't stopped me though. I see this Martian endeavour as being the same, the volunteers know the score before they go, so there are no moral problems.

    Like Fraggle said, sending people to war is worse. We give teenagers basic training, fill their heads with jingoistic bullshit, and send them off knowing full well many will die. That isn't honest.
     
    phlogistician, Nov 1, 2010
    #19
  23. phlogistician

    phlogistician Banned Banned

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    Yeah, all those pioneers like Columbus, they didn't do jack shit until they knew it was 'safe'.
     
    phlogistician, Nov 1, 2010
    #20
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