No family - if it goes wrong they don’t want a Saving Private Ryan type PR disaster. No pets either - wasted life support capacity.
Standard astronaut pay, but you’ll have to arrange your own affairs yourself.
Went with the 400-450 days trip based on Wiki’s cite - if it ends up taking longer don’t blame me!
Nope. I’ll be in my 50s in 2030 but even if I were much younger I’d still say no. I’ll see Mars after I die (I plan to go galaxy hopping) - I can wait.
I was wondering why he wanted to take his pets and his partner on a one way death mission myself. Maybe there are some simmering issues we don’t know about? 
Don’t throw em under the spaceship!
Probably not, but I could possibly be convinced to go. There’s just so much to see and do on Earth that I haven’t come close to experiencing that I’d rather just stay here and do those. Plus, a year without running or even significant movement outdoors would be awful.
Yeah, I do it. I’d do it for free.
Because aside from the adventure, the journey, the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the mystic and the mystery, and the bar bragging rights, I’m fairly certain that speaking fees for one round on a lecture circuit would blow any “astronaut’s wages” I’m waving to sign up for this mission.
I’m right there with you. I get the shivers just watching a launch on TV. I was at the Kennedy Space Center this summer, and the Saturn rocket was more interesting than any of the rides at the Orlando parks.
I’ve wanted to go into space for as long as I can remember.
Same for me. I might have been peeing down both legs the whole way up, but nothing would have kept me from going.
Well, there is the whole “having a wife, child, and responsibilities” thing that would make have to say no thanks…but if I was younger and unattached, I’d go in a heartbeat.
No. I would love to go into space some day and see the earth from orbit but a round-trip to Mars seems like overkill. After a few weeks the novelty of space travel would wear off and it’s basically a very long journey to a barren rock in very cramped conditions.
Life on Mars (once you get there) is going to be pretty boring…basically, you will be living in a small tin can, with several other people. Entranced by the vistas? Mars looks a lot like the SW US deserts-without life…apt to get boring soon.
So as you sit in your smelly tin can, you contemplate the 18 month journey back to Earth (assuming that’s in the plan).
nless you are a totally devoted scientist type, life on Mars is going to disappoint.
Of course not. I’m not an astronaut, and I couldn’t withstand the training even if I wanted to, which I really don’t.
I marvel at people who can stand weightlessness and the lack of a useful vestibular system.
I would if I could smuggle a McDonald’s wrapper on board, just to toss it onto the surface of Mars before leaving.
I’d rather do it on the moon, though, because it couldn’t be buried, blown away or destroyed.
The ultimate in a long-term-timing joke.
If there was actual research that I could do upon landing (in other words, the man-to-Mars mission isn’t just a PR stunt), not only would I be willing to go, I’d be willing to go even if it meant there would be no return trip.
Just being there is research, Student. Long-term survival, medical issues resulting from long-term habitation on Mars? These are important things.
I’d go even if that was all I could do. There are very few things I believe in as much as I believe in the human need for exploration.
You have multiple nutsacks?!