Comments on: How to get to Mars

By: Tim

Tim — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 01:16:31 +0000

How much would it cost? Dollars and resources? Is Earth a lost cause? Maybe we should concentrate all that effort, timemoneyenergy, on ways to improve or, dare I say, save this planet. Lots of talk about billion dollar trips to Mars. I am scared when space exploration is seriously investigated and funded. No one ever balks at the cost nor considers a close to home focus. Of course I scare easily and tend to generalize.

By: Nomen Nescio

Nomen Nescio — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 15:51:23 +0000

i’d go on that trip, happily. sure it’s a (long term) death sentence, but nobody gets out of life alive, and that’d be one helluva way to go.the hardest part’d be the isolation, for me. i’d want a way to keep e-mail pen pals, at least. the one-way nature of the trip wouldn’t bother me, though.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 08:22:36 +0000

I’ve been thinking about this more. I think you need to send two or three females already impregnated with fertilized eggs, such that each egg and sperm, and the two or three females, are all very unrelated. That way you are starting off with a highly diverse genome. A small number of the fertilized eggs should be males, and a stash of genetically diverse frozen sperm should be on board.Of course, the equipment to quickly set up extraction sites (for fundamentals like food, air, and water) had already been sent and some of the machines are already in place and running.No, no, no, we can’t send Robot Snakes. That would simply enrage the Martians. We don’t need that…

By: MaxieZ

MaxieZ — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 08:14:19 +0000

Maybe there can be a sequel: Joe vs the red planet

By: kevin

kevin — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 01:37:51 +0000

I’m with Homie Bear on this. I think plenty of people of sound mind would agree to a one way trip, especially if there was some plausible plan for an extended stay — re-supply ever few years, say, or a plan for local resource extraction and food growth. If I didn’t have a family, I’d seriously consider it. It isn’t a death sentence, it is exploration and isolation, with no return trip.Now, a one-person + one-way trip would probably be a deal breaker for me — I’d want some human company, and I imagine most people would too, at least two or three other people preferably.But even so, even under the most extreme scenario (one way, one person, with a short and finite length before guaranteed resource exhaustion and death), I bet you could find a few takers. There really are people willing to sacrifice themselves for something they believe in. And not just the crazies.

By: Cherish

Cherish — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 23:39:26 +0000

A one way mission sounds cool…but what he’s talking about is exile. You can’t send just one person. It certainly doesn’t have any financial justification, and it won’t promote any commitment to keep sending more.

By: Homie Bear

Homie Bear — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 21:12:01 +0000

I tend to agree with him- I believe there would be thousands of applicants for the job- and some of them would be of sound mind. But what could a one-man mission accomplish that unmanned missions couldn’t? Why not send some of your robot snakes?