One Way Ticket to Mars

Headhuunter

I was reading this article and wondering what sort of person would ever want to take them upon their offer...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22146456

Basically they're asking for people to commit suicide. Among the highlights for the rest of your short life:

Muscle and bone wastage meaning a return to Earth would be impossible (gravity too strong)
Extreme solar wind strips everything from the surface of Mars
Extreme radiation, especially on the trip out meaning increased risk of cancer and lowered immunity
No liquid water, atmospheric pressure "practically a vacuum", temperatures that vary wildly

"I have no doubt that we could physically place a human being on Mars. Whether they'd be able to survive for an extended period of time is much more doubtful," - Dr Bray

NASA astronaut Stan Love has recently returned from Antarctica which he says is a "picnic compared to Mars".
"It's full of water, you can go outside and breathe the air. It's paradise compared to Mars and yet nobody has moved there permanently."

I mean what actually appeals about this trip? Basically you get to spend the rest of your life in a tin can floating towards Mars and then dying slowly on the dusty surface of an irradiated, solar blasted planet. I can think of better things to do with the rest of my life quite frankly...

Would you do it?

veronese68

I can think of a few poeple I'd like to send.

essex-commuter

Is a helmet compulsory?

notsoblue

essex-commuter wrote:

Is a helmet compulsory?

Are you crazy? Not wearing a helmet on mars will get you killed!

estampida

you assume they would survive lift off and the journey there

NASA almost did this in 1983... but by then the masses (people) had lost the stomach for suicide trips....

and imagine getting there to discover the equipment is N/F.... do you wait to die or go for a long walk....

Kieran_Burns

You need to read The Martian

davmaggs

If they genuinely took applications they would get some very good candidates out of hundreds of thousands of entries. Applicants would do it in order to be the first, to take big risks and all the other things that drove people like Columbus and others to go and find things.

What NASA should probably avoid is sending the current type of astronaut. They are typically high IQ athletes that have spent a life time training their minds and bodies to be in the top percentile of humans. On a long trip you want slight tubsters who can happily sit confirmed in a small space and happily watch endless films and eat sealed packs of food of a low standard. IT people would probably be suitable.

meanredspider

Ah but if we'd all had this attitude, Headhuunter, we'd never have discovered America....











...OK - point made

DonDaddyD

I would do it in the hope that my space ship would fly through so cosmic rays thereby bestowing me with superpowers....

walkingbootweather

msmancunia would I'm sure, love to explore Mars, the Milky Way and the rest of the Galaxy. She's a real Smartie and would Revel in such a Marathon trip. We are talking chocolate aren't we or am I going off Topic?

kelsen

davmaggs wrote:

If they genuinely took applications they would get some very good candidates out of hundreds of thousands of entries. Applicants would do it in order to be the first, to take big risks and all the other things that drove people like Columbus and others to go and find things.

What NASA should probably avoid is sending the current type of astronaut. They are typically high IQ athletes that have spent a life time training their minds and bodies to be in the top percentile of humans. On a long trip you want slight tubsters who can happily sit confirmed in a small space and happily watch endless films and eat sealed packs of food of a low standard. IT people would probably be suitable.

veronese68

walkingbootweather wrote:

msmancunia would I'm sure, love to explore Mars, the Milky Way and the rest of the Galaxy. She's a real Smartie and would Revel in such a Marathon trip. We are talking chocolate aren't we or am I going off Topic?

Very good, did you hear a Wispa that she likes chocolate? There would be a Bounty of views to enjoy on the way.

Monkeypump

DonDaddyD wrote:

I would do it in the hope that my space ship would fly through so cosmic rays thereby bestowing me with superpowers....

But would you use those powers for good or evil?

bushu

I'll try most things once and yes it will kill me one day
so count me in i've had enough of this nonsense 'ere anyway
though the xc bike would have to come with, not seen many roads on t' map..

Sharkyssurfers

bushu wrote:

though the xc bike would have to come with, not seen many roads on t' map..

yeah think of all them KOM strava segments you can make!

Drfabulous0

Monkeypump wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

I would do it in the hope that my space ship would fly through so cosmic rays thereby bestowing me with superpowers....

But would you use those powers for good or evil?

Unfortunately we all know the answer to that.