Mars - One way...would you go?
- Thread starter Distorted Humor
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I think quality of life is subjective. I doubt many would enjoy reducing their quality of life. It's something we always try to improve. So if what we're gaining doesn't outweigh the sacrifices, then we decline the offer.
In a way, it's similar to when we make purchases, where we consider if the item we're gaining is more valuable to us than the money we have to give up.
Being the first colonist of an alien world is the reward, but I just don't feel it would outweigh the cost to me, so it would be a net reduction in my quality of life
PUT ME ON THAT LIST RIGHT AWAY.
would have been my first answer a month or so ago, but I have to much here. it still is a urge on my mind to go there, I could make it. I was punished alot when growing up(my fault), and that meant staring at the ceiling with only myself for company. I could easly stay by myself in a small space for 6 months then years when we arrive at the planet.
would have been my first answer a month or so ago, but I have to much here. it still is a urge on my mind to go there, I could make it. I was punished alot when growing up(my fault), and that meant staring at the ceiling with only myself for company. I could easly stay by myself in a small space for 6 months then years when we arrive at the planet.
Will there be wifi?
"Give dese people AIAH!"
Yes, on the condition I can choose my own crew. I don't want to settle Mars with the same kind of mewling, ignorant pussies I got into a rocket to escape from.
The second it's clear the colony is self sustaining, mission control is getting text message: "Fuck all y'all." Then in 200 years my descendents will return to Earth and nuke the fuck out of whatever post industrial collapse humans are left.
It would probably not be wise to allow me to volunteer for this mission.
The second it's clear the colony is self sustaining, mission control is getting text message: "Fuck all y'all." Then in 200 years my descendents will return to Earth and nuke the fuck out of whatever post industrial collapse humans are left.
It would probably not be wise to allow me to volunteer for this mission.
If people went there as colonists with the option of returning to Earth, some would choose to stay if they had sufficient supplies. So it could be a mixture of one- and two-way travel but mostly supply missions, which would have to be guaranteed. Many people move overseas and never go back.
I wouldn't go, but there are some people who would receive my enthusiastic recommendation 
Seriously though, putting aside the difficulty in getting air and food, I doubt if Mars' gravity is sufficient to stave off muscle and bone loss. At the very least, the second generation of people would grow to be rather tall and gracile, assuming similar nutrition to those on Earth. I guess that wouldn't be too much of a draw back if you intend never to return to Earth or a similarly deep gravity well in your lifetime. However, anybody freshly arrived from Earth would be a comparative superman in the weak gravity and could physically dominate the "Martians".
In order for me to go, there would need to be a way to keep Earth-like strength and health. Maybe they could send materials ahead to build a space elevator (doable with current materials in Mars' gravity well) that had an attached centrifuge spun up to 1 g. Then I would consider it because, really, everybody wants to go to Mars so they can jump around like Superman and losing muscle mass would kind of negate that.
Seriously though, putting aside the difficulty in getting air and food, I doubt if Mars' gravity is sufficient to stave off muscle and bone loss. At the very least, the second generation of people would grow to be rather tall and gracile, assuming similar nutrition to those on Earth. I guess that wouldn't be too much of a draw back if you intend never to return to Earth or a similarly deep gravity well in your lifetime. However, anybody freshly arrived from Earth would be a comparative superman in the weak gravity and could physically dominate the "Martians".
In order for me to go, there would need to be a way to keep Earth-like strength and health. Maybe they could send materials ahead to build a space elevator (doable with current materials in Mars' gravity well) that had an attached centrifuge spun up to 1 g. Then I would consider it because, really, everybody wants to go to Mars so they can jump around like Superman and losing muscle mass would kind of negate that.
Or clothing that's restrictive and constantly requires physical effort. When the elbow is bent, the sleeve tries to straighten, and vice versa, perhaps through a deviously designed system of hydraulic hoses and valves switched by pressure accumulated by stealing energy from the wearer's movements--or something simpler that does the same thing, like sewn-in plastic strips if that's all it takes.
The gravity on Mars is .376g, as opposed to our 1g. Less than half. I have no idea what the effect of that gravity would be in the long term, although it's a bit over double that of the moon.
No. I don't have a problem with the one way trip part, I'd gladly spend my entire life there. It wouldn't be a decrease in the quality of my life. It will be more difficult and I would have less comforts, but that will only improve the quality of life by making it more interesting. I'd have the chance to work to create the quality of my life myself, everything I have and do would depend on my own doing and that will increase the satisfaction, and my leisure activities will be replace with working for myself, so I'll never go into laziness. Also I'd know that the things I make with my own life will be important for the future colonies of human kind. Tough life doesn't mean bad life, bad life is one that you can't enjoy, and there would be what to enjoy on a Martian colony.
But a one-way trip would suck. There's absolutely no reason to make a one-way trip in the first place. If you can bring the supplies to support the colonists, you can bring fuel and spacecraft to bring them back. Supplies for a group of 6 people for a lifetime would be harder to bring there than a small rocket and fuel. If someone makes a one-way trip mission, something is very very wrong with that mission, so I won't go.
Oh, and you always want to have the option to change your mind and leave. Stranding yourself on a planet on purpose is not a wise thing to do, unless that planet is Earth.
But a one-way trip would suck. There's absolutely no reason to make a one-way trip in the first place. If you can bring the supplies to support the colonists, you can bring fuel and spacecraft to bring them back. Supplies for a group of 6 people for a lifetime would be harder to bring there than a small rocket and fuel. If someone makes a one-way trip mission, something is very very wrong with that mission, so I won't go.
Oh, and you always want to have the option to change your mind and leave. Stranding yourself on a planet on purpose is not a wise thing to do, unless that planet is Earth.
Wow, I honestly had no idea Mars only has a third of the gravity Earth does. Still though. .3g is better than near zero that astronauts on the ISS face, and that has been inhabited now for a long time. I'd say if humans can learn to exist for extended duration in zero gravity, they can exist somewhere with reduced gravity.
I probably wouldn't as I don't consider myself trusted, qualified enough, or capable of doing what is needed as part of the team in order to complete the mission successfully.
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