If it means keeping our space program alive, I’m willing to go on the next one.
Yeah I’d go if there wasn’t the 100% chance of death, I may be stupid but I’m not that stupid. Not that I would be that much of a help, all I do is make maps.
After the Challenger crash, they interviewed Chuck Yeager, who pointed out that if somebody had told him back in the 60’s that there was going to be a space program that included hundreds of missions, several of them to the moon with landings and all, then the design, test and flight of dozens of shuttle missions, and that during all of that NASA would only lose ten people, he would have thought the person was absolutely insane. That we have gone another seventeen years, only losing seven more people, is a safety record that is incredible.
I’d go.
Ok, did all of you read the question in the OP?
“How about the rest of you folks? Would you go? Even if you knew you’d never return to Earth alive?”
So ALL of you who said yes are saying that you WOULD do it even if you KNEW FOR A FACT that you would die? I sure as hell wouldn’t. I’m sure some of you would, but I am having a hard time believing that all you ‘yesses’ would.
Opal, thanks for pointing that out. I’m interested in if folks would go if they knew it was a one way trip, but I also want to hear from folks who would go only if they thought that there was a reasonable chance for surviving. I hope that all of you who’ve said “yes” have signed my petition. I also hope that you’ll write your elected officials and tell them how you feel.
Hells, yes, I’d go! Looks like all flights are booked full of Dopers for the next 500 years or so, so you can put me on stand-by, in case anybody can’t make it to the earlier flights. I don’t mind flying coach!
Mmm, freeze-dried ice cream!
Keep the dream alive, boys and girls. Keep the dream alive.
Eh, that’s for the first flight. I’m on the second flight. We’re safe as kittens.
Honestly, with a wife, a small boy and finding out today that another lil Chandeleur is on the way, I would stay here.
Congratulations to chandeleur on the news. 
Kn*ckers : Have you had freeze dried ice cream, french fries and other astronaut delicacies? Archie McPhee used to sell them. Maybe they still do. They sound so…stunningly good. :eek:
For the record: yes, even if I knew, for a fact, that I wouldn’t make it back to Earth. (Intact.)
Why? Because I measure my life by experiences, not by minutes. And there is virtually no possibility that the sum total of all my experiences from now until whenever I could expect to die could hold a candle to the experience of seeing the Earth from outside its tender confines.
Of course, I do have a family to support as well. So I would have to add the caveat that my life insurance company wouldn’t know that I wasn’t coming back, so I could upgrade my policy.
I wouldn’t go if I knew in advance that it was a one way trip. However, I’d go tomorrow if the odds for a safe return were based upon the entire history of US manned spaceflight!
Rick
If it were to be a one way trip could I live out my days on the ISS?
Then I would go. Now lets say that Endavour is sitting at the pad and they think it’s good to go but they haven’t made any design modifications since the last accident, I would go. I believe that I would most likely return alive.
If I really thought I would die, I would not go. I’m not suicidal.
To revist the ‘even if you knew you’d never return to Earth alive’ part of the question:
Hey, that’s what a space station is for! Just stay up there, even with the risks of long-term zero gravity upon the body. Still a one-way trip. 
But, if I had to come back down (and therefore croak)… at the current point in time, no: there’s too much else I’m connected to. However, if my circumstances were different then yes, I’d still go. I’d rather go out with a shout than a whisper.
I’m single, unemployed, and occaisionally depressed. What’s holding me on Earth? I’ll just make sure I hand someone else the Moderator ID for Cecil’s Place and get someone else to run programs for the Pittsburgh RG. Just one question. Do I get a way to transmit notes on as much of the experience as I survive to a certain SF writer? Hmmm. Maybe I’d better not tell him it’s a one-way trip.
I’m still in, and I claim communications – what else would a Japanese-speaking computer jock do?
CJ
Can I drive!
Okay, I’ll revisit my answer in light of the “would you go if it were certain you’d die” question.
If the odds were 50-50. Heck yeah! I’d go in a second. If the odds were 90-10 against my returning safely, I’d still go.
If the odds were 100% that I’d die, then probably not. I’d like to have some, small glimmer of hope that I’d return alive. But then again, maybe I’d go after all. I’d seriously think about it. I’m going to die at some point after all.
I probably wouldn’t do it but I would have answered exactly the same if you had asked me last week.
Haj
Well, first of all, my wife isn’t a Doper so I guess her seat is open. (Could she sit on my lap?)
Knowing that it was a one-way trip puts a new spin on it for two reasons. First, my wife and I have an understanding that I’m not allowed to die first, so going up knowing that I’m not coming back would put me in violation of this agreement. Second, even discounting reason one I would not want to leave her behind to fend for herself. Those of you who’re familiar with our situation will understand; suffice to say that her living alone is not an option.
Of course, if we both went that wouldn’t be a problem.
If it were for sure, no bullshit 100.0000% down in flames I would have to think about it for a minute or two. I would have to balance my death against the expected contribution by my going.
If the chance of death were 99.9% or less, then kick the tires, and light the fires. Gus can drive and I’ll navigate.
In either case when death comes to take me I’ll be at 12,000MPH and headed in the other direction.
I usually avoid threads that already have lots of replies. But when one has had a few drinks (what’s new) one is a little less worrisome about trivial things such as being overlooked.
I would gladly ride the next shuttle mission. Once I have seen my home planet from space I do not care so much about death. What better time to die than after you have seen something the like of which you will never see again. We all die eventually.
That said - the chances of a space mission going wrong are still something like 70 to 1. I am willing to take that risk.
Just as long as I get to see Britain. Seeing my planey from space is one thing. Seeing my place of birth from space is a whole other thing.
As if it wasn’t obvious - ‘planey’ should be ‘planet’