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Wanted: People Willing to Die on Mars

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Re: Wanted: People Willing to Die on Mars

#11

Post by jamesaguilar »

dangrossman wrote: post #7
cryptoz wrote: post #2

I think the most likely way to successfully land on Mars and stay there is to allow for frequent trips back and forth. Obviously I think Musk and SpaceX are taking this approach. Ensure complete and rapid rocket re-usability, make engines that take fuel that Mars mostly provides, and ensure a constant stream of supplies, growth, new people. If your colony is growing, and expanding, and there are frequently (every 2 y…

> But I doubt it would be much riskier than we're currently living our lives here on Earth. You're probably underestimating the risks associated with humans leaving Earth for any considerable period of time. Radiation is the first issue. NASA will not plan a mission that exposes astronauts to higher than a 3% risk of exposure-induced death. Their reports from 2010 based on all the studies done up to that point put th…

> You're never

Unless we can develop drugs that trick the body into maintaining the correct muscle and bone density.

Re: Wanted: People Willing to Die on Mars

#12

Post by starpilot »

dangrossman wrote: post #7
cryptoz wrote: post #2

I think the most likely way to successfully land on Mars and stay there is to allow for frequent trips back and forth. Obviously I think Musk and SpaceX are taking this approach. Ensure complete and rapid rocket re-usability, make engines that take fuel that Mars mostly provides, and ensure a constant stream of supplies, growth, new people. If your colony is growing, and expanding, and there are frequently (every 2 y…

> But I doubt it would be much riskier than we're currently living our lives here on Earth. You're probably underestimating the risks associated with humans leaving Earth for any considerable period of time. Radiation is the first issue. NASA will not plan a mission that exposes astronauts to higher than a 3% risk of exposure-induced death. Their reports from 2010 based on all the studies done up to that point put th…

With Mars there's also that "step outside without a protective suit, suffocate and freeze to death in few minutes" bit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Mars

Re: Wanted: People Willing to Die on Mars

#13

Post by nnq »

Unless explorers will be given property of sizable portions of martian land and a number (more than 1!) of back and forth Mars-Earth tickets, this will definitely not attract the kind of valuable and resourceful people that would really be needed to create a self sustaining colony! And you'd also need something like a "diversity Mars Visa lottery" open to anyone so that a colony will not only be formed of "boring, super-fit and super-trained" career space colonists.

...but for all this to work, you'd need good, reliable and "cheap" space propulsion systems, not the current toys. This is where all the work and hype should be, not over the colonization plans and how to grow veggies over there: propulsion, propulsion, propulsion, everything else on 4th, 5th, 6th etc. place.

Re: Wanted: People Willing to Die on Mars

#16

Post by ewolf »

tokenadult wrote: post #10

I wonder how many people are willing to take on the real adventure of living in any of the twenty poorest countries in the world, or twenty most tyrannical countries of the world (there is overlap between the two sets) to try to change those from the inside. When I was in high school, going to a high school that was named after an astronaut just after the first moon landing, I thought it was completely natural to hav…

I fantasize about doing that sometimes, but usually, you can't get into politics without being a citizen — either due to legislation or because you won't be accepted as a representative by the population, for obvious reasons.

But assuming you can get into politics, you'll still have to deal with an enormous struggle for power (be it elections you have to win or powerful people you have to convince) in order to get into a position to even make any change.

Thus, this endeavour is practically impossible — it's already difficult enough to change something in your fatherland.

AFTER tokenadult's EDIT: Your edit clarifies a lot. But fraternalism is still difficult to achieve: if you are from a different race than the native population, you'll have a hard time being accepted as their representative.

An interesting example for this might be Singapore, where Lee Kuan Yew pushed the country from third to first world in 50 years. Although he is Singaporean, he brought in a lot of foreign knowledge as he had studied abroad. And the same issues with corruption/illegal methods some commenters mention here can be observed: in the early days of his career, he arrested his opponents, the communists, without any legal process to prevent them from jeopardizing his plans. Later, he made some radical decisions, that were not widely accepted by the population, bu that led to better results for the country (for example, he tore down old villages to replace them by high-rise buildings).

Re: Wanted: People Willing to Die on Mars

#17

Post by smoyer »

I'd be perfectly willing to die on Mars and (being one of the older one here), I'd say it's more likely that I am dead before anyone actually gets there. (Note that my family might not like me leaving them behind on Earth).

As an aside, it's a shame that the artist's rendition reminds me of a trailer park in a Florida retirement "encampment". I have no intention of retiring somewhere that's populated by snow-birds (well ... if I actually retire. Retirement sounds terribly boring).

Re: Wanted: People Willing to Die on Mars

#18

Post by smnrchrds »

cryptoz wrote: post #2

I think the most likely way to successfully land on Mars and stay there is to allow for frequent trips back and forth. Obviously I think Musk and SpaceX are taking this approach. Ensure complete and rapid rocket re-usability, make engines that take fuel that Mars mostly provides, and ensure a constant stream of supplies, growth, new people. If your colony is growing, and expanding, and there are frequently (every 2 y…

The thing I'm most worried about is what happens if one of the residents needs medical attention. Mars is going to be a one-way trip and while the pioneers will most probably be young and healthy, they won't stay young and healthy forever.

It is entirely possible to place a doctor within the group and send medical supplies, but it could work only for the simplest medical conditions. I think it would be a long time before it would be possible to perform open heart surgeries on Mars, or even fill a tooth.

Re: Wanted: People Willing to Die on Mars

#19

Post by edw519 »

Both of my grandfathers did this 100 years ago.

They never saw their homeland or most of their friends or relatives ever again.

They must have known that was the way it was going to be. I often wonder how they felt about it.

Re: Wanted: People Willing to Die on Mars

#20

Post by nnq »

tokenadult wrote: post #10

I wonder how many people are willing to take on the real adventure of living in any of the twenty poorest countries in the world, or twenty most tyrannical countries of the world (there is overlap between the two sets) to try to change those from the inside. When I was in high school, going to a high school that was named after an astronaut just after the first moon landing, I thought it was completely natural to hav…

The kind of people that have the abilities and desire to "change systems from within" are very different from the kind of people that are good at "making better systems from scratch", or "making new systems in places with limited resources". Dealing with complicated peopleware meshes and solving resource reallocation problems is a completely different problem from surviving and thriving in a harsh environment with limited resources. The people needed to solve these types of problems think and see things very differently, they never get along with each other, and I'd imagine that if an alien psychologist would visit our planet, (s)he could literally consider them different species!
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