# Will we walk on Mars in your lifetime? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 27, 2013, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-walk-on-mars-in-your-lifetime/664680 "2013-07-27T17:02:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Darth\_Sensitive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@Darth\_Sensitive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Sensitive)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-walk-on-mars-in-your-lifetime/664680/41 "2013-07-30T05:17:27Z")
1. Yes. I’m a space travel loving optimist who plans to live until at least the tricentennial. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-walk-on-mars-in-your-lifetime/664680/42 "2013-07-30T05:51:48Z")
> [@aNewLeaf](#): > > It’s just something our species does. We go places and check them out. We’re checking out Mars right this minute. The fact that we’ve figured out how to do this robotically means that we are far ahead of where we’d be if dependent on humans walking there. It also means that a major reason for going has been removed. When machines can do a better job at a tiny fraction of the price, manned exploration isn’t simply superfluous - it’s actively counterproductive (by commandeering enormous resources that would yield far more if devoted to unmanned missions). ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-walk-on-mars-in-your-lifetime/664680/43 "2013-07-30T06:33:55Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Dude, stop bogarting that roach. > > Stranger Man, I was born this way, that stuff is just redundant. You see, my mom and this Dr. Leary guy … ---
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2013, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-walk-on-mars-in-your-lifetime/664680/44 "2013-07-31T07:16:08Z")
I want us to go. I just don’t think I’ll live to see it. I’m trying my damnest to live to see us make it back to the moon. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2013, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-walk-on-mars-in-your-lifetime/664680/45 "2013-07-31T08:35:00Z")
Seems unlikely to me, I can’t see there’s much need for it. But if it happens I reckon it will be after I have shuffled off (human life expectancy says I have ~30 more years). ---
**Author:** ![Scubaqueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Scubaqueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scubaqueen)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2013, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-walk-on-mars-in-your-lifetime/664680/46 "2013-07-31T17:05:35Z")
Another bona fide space nut here, who also says it ain’t gonna happen. I \*\*want \*\*to see it - very much so - but at 57 and given the fact that my family dies ‘young,’ it’s doubtful that even if the stars and the planets were to align in some mystical cosmic way that gets the space program anything and everything needed to make it to Mars, and we DO make it by 2033, I won’t be around to see it. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2013, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-walk-on-mars-in-your-lifetime/664680/47 "2013-07-31T17:19:18Z")
Yep, right after I get my mother-effin’ flying car. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2013, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-walk-on-mars-in-your-lifetime/664680/48 "2013-07-31T17:48:55Z")
I have more confidence that human lifespans will go up significantly in my lifetime than I am that humans will walk on Mars in my lifetime. But I predict when humans finally do go to Mars (and I think it’s inevitable) it will be a multi-national effort. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2013, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-walk-on-mars-in-your-lifetime/664680/49 "2013-07-31T18:40:40Z")
I’m 48. I don’t expect to survive out of my mid 60’s. So, in the next 17 years? No. ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2013, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-walk-on-mars-in-your-lifetime/664680/50 "2013-07-31T18:47:37Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > As for China engaging on such a mission, it should be pointed out that the Chinese are demonstrating the same basic capabilities developed by the United States and the former Soviet Union circa 1965, and doing so at a relatively slow pace. While the Chinese are certainly showing an interest in the military applications of space systems, the crewed program appears to be strictly as a demonstration of national prestige. > > Stranger This is what makes me think China will go, or try to. It’s the next big thing. So far, they are following US and Soviet advances. Even on the moon they will literally be walking in our footsteps. Mars ain’t easy, but it’s easier and closer than some of the other upcoming challenges, and more dramatic than some as well. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2013, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-walk-on-mars-in-your-lifetime/664680/51 "2013-07-31T20:03:40Z")
I’m 59, and my parents are both in their late 80s, so I figure I’ve got a good chance at making it to mid-century. No fucking way. Let’s put this in perspective: at its nearest, Mars is 150 times as far from Earth as the Moon is. (We’ll call the mean distance between the Earth and the Moon a ‘Moon Unit’ in honor of one of Frank Zappa’s kids.) And the Moon is roughly one Moon Unit from Earth all the time, while Mars gets over 1000 Moon Units away. That trip will be a thousand times or more as difficult as the trip to the Moon. And you notice that nobody’s been back to the Moon in the past 40 years. The one remote chance for its happening by midcentury is if some megabillionaire is willing to sink $100 billion into a one-way trip. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-walk-on-mars-in-your-lifetime/664680.md?page=2)