Lemme put it this way. Yes, but. The first mission? That’s a one-way trip for a year or two.
But there must be a second or third. To rotate out people. And we will bring them home.
I don’t see any reason to fly there and also fly back.
I would do it immediately. No hesitation, no looking back.
In fact, if they gave me a choice, right now Go to Mars (if the mission is successful), and live the rest of your natural life, however long it may be… probably alone unless we decide to send more people or live out the rest of your life with relative wealth and raise a family, doing the normal stuff, I’d choose the former, without question, without doubt.
How could anyone choose otherwise? It boggles the mind. Yes, foregoing the ability to pass on my genetic material would be a real tragedy, I truly am a superior being, I know. But, there are plenty of people who are close enough related to me that I’m comfortable with not procreating if the pay off is high enough.
The pay off for maybe being the first man on another planet, the first man to traverse that great distance not just of space, but between planets, to be the first to step foot on another world, and to be the first to preform the most groundbreaking experiments of mankinds history… I’d do it immediately. And happily. Even if you told me I’d have enough supplies for a year, and then I’d die of exposure, I’d still do it (but in that case, I’d like to procreate first…).
However, if there’s going to be any chance of long term habitability of other celestial bodies, it needs to be 2 way. At first, it should be 2 way, from here to there and back. Then it should be entirely 1 way, with equipment and personnel flowing from here to there. Then, when they’re entirely self sufficient, it should be 2 way again, with personnel flowing back and forth.
Who gives a damn about procreating? Which is more important to you: having a blood relative living five light-minutes away, or being able to have a conversation, ever again?
Whatever payoff there is, it’s going to be back on Earth, while you’re stuck on Mars, alone.
What “groundbreaking experiments” would those be? In all seriousness, are there any significant scientific research objectives that could be better achieved by an isolated researcher living on Mars than by remote-controlled instruments and/or experiments on Earth?
Because prolonged isolation is psychologically devastating to most human beings. Even if you had lots of electronic communication with friends and family and colleagues, you would never touch another living creature for the rest of your life. Moreover, you’d be permanently condemned to shelter in a physically circumscribed life-support system to protect you from an unlivable environment. The whole setup would be uncomfortably similar to solitary confinement for prisoners, which is generally not a healthy experience:
Even if surviving as the only living thing on Mars would be a grand achievement, that wouldn’t necessarily make you psychologically capable of enduring the isolation, any more than it would make you physically capable of breathing the Martian atmosphere.
No. The expense to get them there will be to high to support a rescue mission. Shit-oh-dear, it will barely cover the original trip, and I assume that, as the distress calls come in, fewer and fewer will go public, which I’d prefer none did.
More than one survivor takes that away, though it leaves the last muthafuckaIeverwannatalkto yammering away millimeters from my head but millions of KM from home.
Crazy as a human, singular, can get I still wonder if pairing them up would be better.
If your goal is to save money, how about not go in the first place?
Start of small. Try living in a camper stocked full of canned goods out in the desert by yourself for a few years and see how that goes.
Because I’d much rather spend the rest of my life actually living my life.
Send people with inoperable cancer. Provide for their families, they might go willingly.
Send people who are going to get executed.
Right, because some psycho who can’t follow simple instructions like “Don’t murder anybody” is exactly the sort of person you want hanging around millions of dollars of fragile equipment.
As is always the case in these threads, people are overestimating the coolness of going to these places. You won’t be exploring the universe with Kirk and Spock. You’ll be stuck in a can the size of a walk-in closet all alone in the middle of an airless waste. Occasionally you might be able to go out in a space-suit, though your desperate need to conserve breatheable air would limit these excursions to emergencies. If that’s a lifestyle that appeals to you, you can commit a heinous crime and get sent to a Supermax prison (as Kimstu notes). The air and food will be better there, and you’ll have more space for exercise.
I do, and presumably everyone does to a certain extent. It’s our most base biological imperative.
I find that the majority of conversations I have don’t hold my attention, and would be far easier to do via text anyway.
Having a conversation with text allows the conversation to flow better, and makes points easier to discern there’s rarely confusion as to the original points being made, etc.
My genetic lineage is important to me. It’s part of my impact on the world. Possibly, my only impact on the world. Einstein, Socrates, Newton, even authors (Asimov, Orson Scott Card, H.G. Rowling – Harry Potter? --, etc) have made some impact on society at large that may very well supersede their genetic impact… one of ideas.
You’re misunderstanding. I don’t want, or need, the payout for me. That payout is beneficial in and of itself.
I don’t aspire to riches, and I don’t need wealth or fame. Leaving the world a better place than I found it, in some small way – or preferably in a very large one – is sufficient.
The effects of Mars on the human body, extensive, long term soil testing (for future colonization), etc.
You could never honestly test the ability of Martian soil to grow plant life without having a human there.
You could come close, but it would never be as good a test. You could never actually test the effects of Mars on the human body, without a human body there to test. Of course, we can make accurate predictions, maybe even perfect ones. But we don’t know what fractional gravity will do to us until we actually experience fractional gravity.
I’ll admit that I’m different from most, the vast majority, of people.
Social interaction never held much motivation for me, especially face to face. (I’ve been the subject of a number of theories regarding social disorders, like Schizoid Personality Disorder, and although I do meet the diagnostic criteria, I don’t think I have it… I think I just genuinely don’t like most people. I can function just fine with others, I juts choose not to.)
Couldn’t do it. No contribution to be made there. Now, if you could find me a reasonable way to make a contribution doing that, I’d gladly do it.
(For instance, I’d volunteer for the Antarctic expedition in a minute, if I thought I’d make any type of meaningful contribution to it.)
You think that a lifetime spent contributing to science and learning new things isn’t living life? I think that it’d be a fantastic way to live life.
Nothing cool about it.
I’m sure it would be a boring, tedious lifestyle, interrupted by short bursts of mindboggling excitement. People over estimate the coolness of the military (or police, or medical professions) all the time, yet people continue to join. People continue to become lifetime military personnel, in fact. Not because of the coolness, but because of the other benefits, whether it’s patriotism, or pay.
I don’t want to commit a crime, I don’t want to be put in prison with people without a care for social order. I dislike violence. I like good food, and it would be a shame to give up Sushi, but that’s a sacrifice I’d readily make. As for exercise? I hate exercise anyway, so a tread mill would be sufficient.
You have a deep-seated desire to asphyxiate in the middle of a frozen & somewhat dimly lit desert?
I cry “bullshit” sir.
Would you go and spend the rest of your life in a shack in the Antarctic?
Romanticize it any way you like. There are real physiological and psychological effects from being isolated without human contact for long periods of time. Especially if you know you have no hope of returning. Eventually you simply won’t care about whatever “contribution” you think you are making. Once the routine of collecting samples, eating food paste and sending emails back to Earth gets old, depression will set in and eventually, you’ll just “forget” not to vent the air out into space.
Todderbob, I’m certainly not claiming that you are likely to commit a crime, nor that you would want to live in a Supermax isolation wing. I am saying that the life of a supermax prisoner is actually slightly preferable to the life you’d face trapped in your tiny habitat, slowly running out of air. I think the novelty of the martian landscape would wear off after a couple of days, especialy since you’d be mostly viewing it out of a porthole. There are plenty of deserts to visit on earth, all with breathable air and interesting critters.
Cry “bullshit” as much as you want. Doesn’t change the fact that I’d do it.
If I had reason, yes. There’s currently no reason for me to do it, nothing to be gained.
It’s not an issue of romanticizing it. It’s an issue of actually weighing the benefits versus the cost.
On me, as an individual, there are almost no benefits to living on Mars, other than the novelty (which I’m sure would wear off quickly). On the other hand, my individual work there would (presumably) have a great impact on science and humanity as a whole. While benefits to the whole are weighed at a diminished scale to benefits to me as an individual (at least on the not-quite-equations I use to determine whether or not I’ll do something), they do still exist.
And the weighted benefits outweigh the negatives, by far. So yes, I’d do it.
I didn’t think you were claiming I’d commit a crime, Larry, I’m just saying that I wouldn’t want to commit a crime, even if there was a potential reward for it.
It might be preferable, if the options were taken at face value as you give them. But they’re not taken at face value, as you give them.
Supermax: Slightly more comfortable, but a lifetime of futility.
Mars: Less comfortable, more dangerous, but a large contribution to humanity.
I’d take Mars each and every time the choice was given to me. It’s not an issue of scenery. If I want scenery I can get a bunch of 62" plasma televisions, mount them on the walls of my home and have them do rotating slide shows of everything from Mars to Mercury and back out to Neptune.
You guys seem to be completely missing the point that not only would I do it, but I’d do it for entirely different reasons than might motivate you. Yes, I understand, you wouldn’t do it because the benefits aren’t there for you.
But I’m also guessing you wouldn’t strap a bomb to your chest and blow yourself to further your cause. However, there are people out there who would do that. I wouldn’t do it, but I would do this.
It’s not an issue of personal benefits, you seem to think my only motivation would be to see something cool – I could see a lot cooler things by looking around Earth than I could on Mars. Mars would be a 2 week novelty, at best, but I’d still go. It would be a lifetime of scientific experiment, no matter how long your life lasted.
not all people who get executed are psychos incapable of following directions. In some Asian countries they execute perfectly normal people for selling drugs or for aggravated corruption. I guess that if the Chinese government were to offer some of them a lifelong enlistment in People’s Liberation Spacefleet (Mars) in lieu of the firing squad, they would have plenty of takers.
Yep. Murder is not following instructions. You got it.
Todderbob, if it’s science that you’re interested in, Sprit and Opportunity have done a lot more science than astronauts will do anytime in the next few decades, at least. Manned space flight is really for national prestige rather than science.
When Congress would not vote enough money for Teddy Roosevelet to send the Great White Fleet around the world, he went ahead and sent it halfway around the world and told Congress, if you want it back you’ll have to pay for it. Might work here? 
Manned spaceflight also hasn’t gone to Mars.
I’m a huge fan and supporter of unmanned spaceflight, and think it should only be done when there are tangible, realistic benefits.
That still doesn’t negate the fact that I’d go to Mars in order to contribute to science, without question or second thought, because there’s science to be done by a person on Mars (with the right equipment) that simply could not be done by a rover. Especially useful science, like potential agriculture, and whether or not certain types of terrain are useful in building.
The problem is that you’re applying the current space flight program with one that would send someone to Mars. The only reason to send someone to Mars would be science, and to get as much science done as possible in their time there. If they were there their entire lifetime, they would be able to get a lifetime of science done… maybe even the foundations of a permanent settlement.