So, this is way off-topic, not that I have a set topic.
Why Did 400 People Volunteer for a One-Way Trip to Mars? – Breaking Orbit
Perhaps you read about this one-way expedition to Mars proposal. It’s highly unofficial and borderline impossible, but even so, people are lining up in droves to throw their hats into the ring for this mission.
I’m a) not a good candidate, b) not enough of a people person, c) too in love with my family to leave them and too concerned for their welfare to bring them along on vacation.
Anyway, lots of fruit for discussion, would you go, if so why, how should people be chosen, is it even possible, etc.
Use the comments.
I had to smile when I saw a Methodist pastor volunteered. It reminded me of that South Park episode, “Starvin Marvin in Space”, where the Christian TV channel raise money to build a space ship to chase Marvin and the kids through a worm-hole and subsequently try to bring the word of God to Marklar. Very funny.
Call me a coward, but I wouldn’t want to be the first person on a new roller coaster, let alone a trip to Mars.
Cheers
Tim…
I liked the way in which the author contrasted the first potential Mars colonists with the inter-continental colonists of the 16th and 17th centuries. One thing that the author missed – when colonists boarded a ship for the New World, they didn’t have people back in Europe watching their every move.
I liked the way in which the author contrasted the first potential Mars colonists with the inter-continental colonists of the 16th and 17th centuries. One thing that the author missed – when colonists boarded a ship for the New World, they didn’t have people back in Europe watching their every move.
Funny, I immediately noticed that too, although that episode didn’t jump to mind. Missionaries in space, just in case.
I’m with you; I enjoy the comforts of home too much.
I liked that parallel too, especially when it broke, i.e. no food or water, different gravity, etc. Space is a scary place.
Of course, when people talk about colonizing the new world, they rarely mention the failed ones. Roanoke, Ajacan, Fort Caroline, Sable Island, Charlesfort, Pensacola, San Miguel de Gualdape, Charlesbourg-Royal, France-Roy—all were short-lived settlements in the 1500s. A hurricane destroyed the first Pensacola settlement. Frigid winters and scurvy claimed several settlements; starving settlers abandoned others. Indians laid siege to settlements or attacked them outright. Rebellion by brutalized soldiers or starved African slaves ended two colonies. Settlers were left to their own resources when the founders left for provisions (or for good). In most cases a few surviving settlers made it back to Europe, but in one famous case—the “Lost Colony” of Roanoke in what is now North Carolina—the settlers disappeared with little trace, their fate still undetermined. Most share the dooming factors of poor planning and unrealistic appraisals of the North American environment.
They could just go live in the desert.
Maybe a lot would have a misguided impression it’d be like a sci-fi film. Seems to me it’s a scary one way trip, with only death and solitude waiting at the end. Imagine changing your mind once you’d left. No blue skies, no trees, greenery, oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, countryside, family, freedom to walk out the door and breathe air. Just being out on a limb, never being able to get home again. Maybe another motivating force for volunteering would be the hope of fame, though what good fame would do you when you’re on a one way ticket to a dry lifeless planet I’m not sure!
I’m pretty sure any serious volunteer would understand that this type of mission has a very high expected failure rate. Essentially, this is a guinea pig mission. Still, no guts, no glory.
Sure, all that would keep me here. I think a ton of people would jump at the chance to be modern pioneers though, even despite all the risks you describe. To boldly go and all that jazz. Then there’s all the scientists with that insatiable desire to learn, study, etc.
I keep thinking of that scene in Pitch Black where they come upon the deserted settlement.