Mars - One way...would you go?

[Distorted Humor]

I didn't want to pull up a dead thread (last post 2009) so I will start a new one on the topic.

One of the concepts for Mars exploration and colonization would be to send a group of pathfinders (Say, six) who would fly to mars, land with a years supply of supplies, and having scientific exploration and building up a base for future arrivals. (with resupply from earth on occasion)..

However the hitch is that it is a one way trip (for now), as to there will be no planned return (not even a design on the drawing table) so you are the first settlers on Mars.

Would you sign up?

 

[RoJoHen]

Only if I could bring my friends and family. Otherwise, not a chance.

 

[Dukhat]

Leaving people on another planet (especially one with the wrong atmosphere) with only the "promise" that future supplies will be sent, is an incredibly bad idea.

 

[Sean Aaron]

No, I couldn't conceive of leaving Glasgow because my daughter is here, let alone the whole planet.

I do think that such a mission could only work if it was self-sustaining from the start given our current primitive technology.

 

[farmkid]

^^I wouldn't necessarily call it a bad idea. It is certainly risky and could very well be bad for those who go and very expensive for the rest of us, but it may not be a bad idea. It may be a choice of doing that or mankind never being able to leave the planet. In other words, that may be a necessary step in colonization of other planets. If that's the case, it's a great, although risky, idea. If you can find a group of people capable of doing the job and willing to do it and the money to do it, I say go right ahead. Those who go pay a high price, but they understand that and accept it before signing up. They also understand and accept the risk that the promised future supplies may or may not show up for a myriad of reasons.

 

[Sean Aaron]

Anyone read Acme Novelty Library? There's a great bit in the novel written by Rusty Brown's (tm) dad about this very scenario, though one of the four sent goes a bit wacky and ends up killing the rest. Funny stuff, though.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

No.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Knowing how government funding usually goes, unless the colony was designed to be self-sustaining and had some redundancy built into it, I sure as hell would not go. The prospect of starving/suffocating due to funding cuts does not appeal.

 

[Lindley]

We can get supplies to Mars much more easily than people anyway, so there's no excuse not to build up a *lot* more than a years' worth before sending them.

 

[BlobVanDam]

Hell no. What do I gain from it? For me there is zero appeal.

 

[iguana_tonante]

Nope. I have a life here.

 

[scotthm]

Would you sign up?

Of course not.

What's on Mars that's worth giving up your life for?

---------------

 

[Sean Aaron]

Hell no. What do I gain from it? For me there is zero appeal.

Yeah, you'd have to pay people a ton of money - oh, wait...

 

[SchwEnt]

Yes. Happily.

 

[Distorted Humor]

Knowing how government funding usually goes, unless the colony was designed to be self-sustaining and had some redundancy built into it, I sure as hell would not go. The prospect of starving/suffocating due to funding cuts does not appeal.

This is assuming that Life support and food is planned to be self-sustaining. Though it is unrealistic that you wouldn't have to depend on the occasional spare parts for a good long while...

I am just making sure people don't think "years up, lets eat the cyanide pellets" instead more of "being the pathfinders on the first human settlement on Mars."

 

[backstept]

sign me up

 

[BlobVanDam]

Hell no. What do I gain from it? For me there is zero appeal.

Yeah, you'd have to pay people a ton of money - oh, wait...

Of course if it was a one way trip, any amount of money is pretty useless anyway.

 

[sojourner]

One caveat, the other 5 members must be a diverse collection of beautiful women. That way if I get the "only if you were the last man on the planet" comment, I could just smile.

 

[Jadzia]

In previous incarnations of this thread I've said 'no'.

The prestige of being one of the first colonists wouldn't be adequate compensation for the lower quality of life I'd have to endure.

 

[Dac]

In previous incarnations of this thread I've said 'no'.

The prestige of being one of the first colonists wouldn't be adequate compensation for the lower quality of life I'd have to endure.

About a billion humans are subject to a much lesser quality of life than us here are privileged too.

Sign me up.