Would you go if you couldn't come back?

You guys don't understand. This isn't really a plan to abandon people on mars, its a plan to force governments to fund space stuff.

"Mr. Senator, you say you want to defund NASA, do you enjoy killing space colonists?"

I'm with Ranger, I think I'll stay here, but I can think of a few people I'd like to see leave the planet.

You guys are missing a quick and easy solution. There are FAR more people on earth you'd like to sent to another planet than you could actually send, but if YOU go, you'll leave all of them behind!

Could I just purchase the "memory" of a trip to Mars? Like maybe as secret agent or double agent? With women both sleazy ~and~ demure?

Alternatively, we could just send all of our earthly convicts to Mars. They did a really good job with Australia....

In reply to oldtin:

Most of the people I'd like to send to another planet don't need supplies of oxygen or retrorockets to slow down once they get there.

I already live in a former penal colony. What could go wrong?

Besides, who says SpaceX won't have something to do with it? TESLAS FOR EVERYONE! Let's go racing in anti-gravity! (Put THAT in your downforce pipe and smoke it!)

Not even a little bit.

My niece on the other hand would go in a heartbeat. Extremely smart, went to Embry-Riddle aeronautical university with the single minded goal of going to space. During some testing they found an anomaly in her heart and it unfortunately meant she would never be able to achieve her dream. I'm sure if she could get medical clearance she would without question.

SkinnyG wrote: Could I just purchase the "memory" of a trip to Mars? Like maybe as secret agent or double agent? With women both sleazy ~and~ demure? Alternatively, we could just send all of our earthly convicts to Mars. They did a really good job with Australia....

Only if there's 3 boobs.

Nah, not for me.

But "somebody" will. Probably the same sort of "somebody" that decided it'd be a good idea to get on a boat with a bag of their belongings and try to build a house in "the new world". It'd be cooler than smell if it went somewhere from there.

Can I nominate people?

I have this list...

SVreX wrote: Besides, who says SpaceX won't have something to do with it? TESLAS FOR EVERYONE! Let's go racing in anti-gravity! (Put THAT in your downforce pipe and smoke it!)

They probably will. SpaceX has their own mars mission plans as an end goal, but this Mars One thingy plans to use SpaceX rockets, too. When the Falcon heavy rocket gets going it'll be the biggest/longest range rocket around, at least until NASA gets their new thingy up and going, and you can bet the SpaceX one will be far more affordable. The spacex website has stats saying the falcon heavy will be able to send 13,200kg worth of payload to mars. Probably not enough for a colony, but that'll certainly send a tesla roadster!

Temperature on Mars has a high of 70F and a low of -200F. It may take 3 months or longer just to travel there. We haven't even been to the moon in 40 years. I don't see anyone travelling to Mars in the next two decades, never mind colonizing a planet that's not very hospitable. Jeez, have you seen Detroit? But I do think it would be interesting to make a one way trip if you could see or discover something noone's ever stumbled across before. It would suck to travel all the way to Jupiter and discover a Starbuck's.

yeah but the reason we haven't been back to the moon isn't because we can't, it's because we went, beat the soviets, planted a flag, and quit. There was a better moon mission planned (remember james may's 'moon rover' drive? that was going to be a real moon rover), but funding got cut because "we already went there, lets go somewhere else".

That's not to say we can get to Mars, just that with NASA's budget cut and congress requiring them to spend a ton of money on this new rocket (with many specs dictated by congress, not actual engineers) NASA won't have any money left to actually build something to put on the rocket to send people to mars. Probably not for decades like you said. That's not to stop someone else from doing it, though there are TONS of things that would stop other people from doing it. Like the cost. Mars One isnt a government program so there's no taking money away from things like public schools to fund it, but it also means no constant tax income funding it.

I doubt detroit will be a nice city before we get to mars. It's probably easier to get to another planet. They could market a Mars colony like "Desolate and barren, but still better than detroit" or perhaps "the air is bad, but at least there's no gang violence!"

It would be cool to discover something new and be the first person to live there, but I still don't want to do it.

Those of you who want to go, you do realize a Mars colony won't make sense without far more advanced technology than we'll have in our lifetimes, right? It'll be like living on the ISS but without zero-G fun and with a vast, dead, featureless desert outside instead of a nice view of Earth. It'll cost at least hundreds of millions to send each person to Mars and then they'll each need hundreds in millions of resupply for the rest of their lives.

We're not going to have any space colonies until we can blow through the speed of light like it's nothing and find a "Class M" planet.

i understand that there's got to be a first time for everything, but with all the stipulations here...it literally sounds like the plot for a videogame. some sort of potential for a grand, isolated, utopia (I am elaborating here but you really dont think that eventually Mars may be some sort of exclusive place to live?)...that may not work out as planned. No couples. Not allowed to leave. Are they also going to suggest that those that sign up have little to no remaining family? So no one will miss you if they pull the plug? When the E36 M3 hits the fan can they count on you to do whatever it takes to protect "the mission"?

I think someone else can be the hero. I am going to sit here and look at silly pictures on the internet.

Swank Force One wrote: Hell no. I'd go to Canada though.

Dude, he said that you can't come back...ever.

In reply to GameboyRMH:

The counter argument here is that if you want to wait until X to do Y you will never do Y, because there is always another X on the horizon to make Y easier. People went to the moon with less computing power than a cell phone, because of motivation. It was out of reach when JFK said we were gonna do it, then we did it. At that time (JFK speech) people were struggling to make rockets themselves not suffer 'rapid unplanned disassembly' during flight, but beating the Soviets to the moon was too sweet to let imminent risk of death slow down the project. Right now there's not a lot of motivation, also not a lot of free money floating around.

Going to another solar system is so far out of reach that people can blow it off, but things actually go to Mars right now. The last one was a big thing, and it got there faster than some people have spent in space on a single mission. The next mars rover is planned to have tech to convert sub surface water into oxygen/hydrogen (also known as rocket fuel, and breathable air out of something that can be filtered and used to make a martini). It's not lifetimes away. Sure, a mars colony might be. I'm assuming Mars One will never make it off the ground, but it's not unfathomably out of reach. Maybe out of reach for NASA funds-wise, but not technically impossible right now, especially if people don't mind a little extra radiation. It's not like it would make them go crazy, since they already have to be nuts to sign up!

In reply to failboat:

Agreed, many weird stipulations, but they've had over 100,000 applications from all over the world, for a 4-person-every-2-years mission. Clearly there's a LOT of people willing to rocket off kerbal-style into the unknown on tech that currently is unmade/untested. I'm sure as hell not sending in an application, but the volunteer pool won't run dry anytime soon.

I would go tomorrow. I like earth and my family and all but most of my contact is on the phone or through the interweb as it is. Besides the adventure of going and being there the thought of starting a civilization on a planet where a quarter of the people will be like me is pretty attractive.

Wally wrote: Besides the adventure of going and being there the thought of starting a civilization on a planet where a quarter of the people will be like me is pretty attractive.

The new Wally World.

Can't you just go to the middle of Australia and experience the same thing only with a few more animals that can kill you?

I would have to say probably not. I like the idea and everything but mars really doesn't have much to offer really in my eyes.

I've been to Mars... Pa.

In reply to fasted58:

My nickname in school was The Red Planet.

just think of the lag time while playing online games :-/... doh.

Just think of all the Tang you'd get.

I'd go, but not first.