Here’s another crazy who’d be on it like a shot. I been dead once, it ain’t no big thang and I could be dead tomorrow due to infinitely more mundane causes. But dying in space, hells yeah! Inna blaza glory, Mom… 
I would absolutely volunteer. Ardred and I could be the first couple on Mars.
No thanks. I really do not travel well.
I’ll go and I don’t care about the odds. Load me up on that big bad rocketship.
I’ll be there with bells on, and since I’ve seen every episode of TOS, and every ST movie with Scotty in it, I know damn well how to reconfabulate the hootermeratis, so not only will we make it there and back, we’ll do it in record time!
Five years ago, I’d have said “yes” without a thought. What could be greater? Travel is what I live for, and I’ve been in some seriously dangerous situations travelling on terra firma. When I was a child it was my greatest ambition; I was privileged enough to have lived amongst the astronauts in the early seventies, when my father worked for Mission Control on Skylab. Our next-door-neighbor was a moonwalker. My father applied to be one of the first European Shuttle astronauts (apparently he was only turned down because of his eyesight, which pissed him off since NASA didn’t have such stringent criteria), and at the time I was really enthusiastic for him.
But now, having actually thought about it in terms of the human experience, rather than merey what it represents - and as if to confirm my misgivings, having just read the stunning exploration of the dangers and the effects on the psyches of the moonwalkers, Moon Dust - I think I’m too much of a pussy.
It takes a very very special person to do such a thing; someone with incredible fortitude. Someone who is prepared to risk everything with a tiny amount of reward (according to the book, the moon astronauts only ever got paid their basic salary - they couldn’t even claim travel expenses for 250,000 miles each way), and someone who’s prepared to risk leaving their family with nothing, as life insurance is impossible for astronauts. I am not that person. And I’m glad my dad didn’t qualify for the Shuttle.
Hell yeah,
A chance to go somewhere no human has ever been? A chance to go down in history without having done something embarressing? I’m pretty happy with 25%.
Not only would I go, I’d call dibs once I got there.
I’ll get my toothbrush.
Seriously – I don’t currently have a job I love, I’m not dating, I don’t have any kids, and the only living beings who depend on me are two cats who can be foisted off on my parents. The serious chance of death wouldn’t deter me.
I’m so in. The wife might have something to say about it, but still…the chance to utter immortal words from another planet. The chances for abuse.
But Tuck, all you have to do is reverse the polarity!
That only works if you’re planning on rerouting things through the deflector dish, and well, only Geordi would do something like that!
This is just what I was thinking. But my lovely wife is the understanding sort, and I think my three boys would be pretty damned proud of me if I went. It’s only three years away, after all (if it isn’t forever)! I agree with Quartz that getting some Internet billionaires and corporate sponsors to kick in $$$$ to improve the odds would be a reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeal good idea.
What the hell… sign me up. This would just be too amazing an opportunity to pass up.
And I said…
Bounce the graviton particle beam
Off the main deflector dish,
That’s the way we do it lad,
We’re making shit up as we wish…
goes to root through her mp3 collection now
“That’s one small step for a man… ooo! it’s all squishy!”
No thanks. I’ll stay here and water your plants.
When come back…
The chance of death for us all is 100% anyway. All we are negotiating on is a more likely time and place. I would gladly burn a few probable years to do something that cool. The mission would more than concentrate the life that I have left into something would be willing to gamble on. Irony would be if I got killed by a freak accident the day after they lifted off and they arrived back to earth safely one day.
If the WSA would provide enough insurance to provide well for my family; I would volunteer.
I could probably be useful. Ex-Navy Electrician, HVAC Mechanic and currently Computer Programmer. Additionally I am an all around handy man.
Hopefully my being a lifelong science-fiction fan would be useful.
Jim
No question…I’d go in a heart beat. Where do I sign up??? 
-XT
I would only go if it paid extremely well and the chances of survival were better.
I would hate being locked up in a small box for over year.
I almost get anxiety attacks when my normal flight takes more than 8 hours.
I would go crazy long, long before we ever reached Mars.
Not to forget the terrible food and service.
It is not quite the same, you’ll be up and moving around, playing games with other crew members etc. I spent 110 days at sea. I believe it was the record at the time. You go a little crazy, but not completely crazy. Of course I was on a carrier with 5000 other semi-crazies.
Jim