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Applicants wanted for a one way ticket to Mars

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Applicants wanted for a one way ticket to Mars

#11

Post by infectoid »

anigbrowl wrote: post #7
eeek wrote: post #4

When I was in high school I was invited to a youth science symposium. After a fancy dinner after a day-long event I asked the speaker, a woman from NASA, if a non-returning mission to Mars was on NASA's list of possibilities ( as the difficulty of the return trip is the primary prohibitive part of a manned mission to Mars ). She took this opportunity to try to humiliate me for even thinking such a crazy plan was wort…

Imagine if she'd said yes. About a week later the tabloids would be screaming 'NASA to launch astronauts on death mission.' She wasn't trying to humiliate you, she was engaged in her job of doing public outreach.

I would think that she could have answered simply, "while your ideas are completely valid, we at NASA find it to be a more compelling challenge to return people to Earth from Mars as it would provide a much better opportunity to innovate and increase our knowledge base on return mission while opening up new industries beyond simply landing Humans on Mars, but ones that span the entire Solar system".

Re: Applicants wanted for a one way ticket to Mars

#12

Post by nmridul »

andrewb wrote: post #3

My initial impression is "Wow, so cool, I wonder if I could do it. Then quickly I am brought back to Earth by thinking that I will never see my family, friends or pets again. I wonder how many of these "thousands" of applicants have truly though this through and could actually do it.

Not everyone thinks of family, friends and pets .. Remember those initial explorers (Columbus, Magellan etc) who went to unknown oceans risking their life. May not be a good comparison, but when you compare the naval technology at that time and space technology now, seems its a comparable risk. And they had to fight other humans so risk to life was even high.

Re: Applicants wanted for a one way ticket to Mars

#13

Post by rowanseymour »

andrewb wrote: post #3

My initial impression is "Wow, so cool, I wonder if I could do it. Then quickly I am brought back to Earth by thinking that I will never see my family, friends or pets again. I wonder how many of these "thousands" of applicants have truly though this through and could actually do it.

Think of all the millions of people who left places like Ireland to emigrate to the US back in the day. Most of them never saw their families they left behind again. At least nowadays we have internet... though with the 10 - 20 minute radio delay to Mars, Skyping isn't going to work so well

Re: Applicants wanted for a one way ticket to Mars

#14

Post by nwh »

rowanseymour wrote: post #13
andrewb wrote: post #3

My initial impression is "Wow, so cool, I wonder if I could do it. Then quickly I am brought back to Earth by thinking that I will never see my family, friends or pets again. I wonder how many of these "thousands" of applicants have truly though this through and could actually do it.

Think of all the millions of people who left places like Ireland to emigrate to the US back in the day. Most of them never saw their families they left behind again. At least nowadays we have internet... though with the 10 - 20 minute radio delay to Mars, Skyping isn't going to work so well

There's a big difference though.

On Mars if a small piece of equipment fails in your shelter, that's it. It's not like you can go outside and breathe some fresh air for a bit.

Re: Applicants wanted for a one way ticket to Mars

#15

Post by andrewb »

rowanseymour wrote: post #13
andrewb wrote: post #3

My initial impression is "Wow, so cool, I wonder if I could do it. Then quickly I am brought back to Earth by thinking that I will never see my family, friends or pets again. I wonder how many of these "thousands" of applicants have truly though this through and could actually do it.

Think of all the millions of people who left places like Ireland to emigrate to the US back in the day. Most of them never saw their families they left behind again. At least nowadays we have internet... though with the 10 - 20 minute radio delay to Mars, Skyping isn't going to work so well

I don't think the Ireland example is the best. My understanding is they left because their home country was poor and the grass looked greener in America (land of opportunity and all).

The grass does not look that green in Mars

Re: Applicants wanted for a one way ticket to Mars

#16

Post by andrewb »

nmridul wrote: post #12
andrewb wrote: post #3

My initial impression is "Wow, so cool, I wonder if I could do it. Then quickly I am brought back to Earth by thinking that I will never see my family, friends or pets again. I wonder how many of these "thousands" of applicants have truly though this through and could actually do it.

Not everyone thinks of family, friends and pets .. Remember those initial explorers (Columbus, Magellan etc) who went to unknown oceans risking their life. May not be a good comparison, but when you compare the naval technology at that time and space technology now, seems its a comparable risk. And they had to fight other humans so risk to life was even high.

Columbus made four voyages. This is a one way trip.

For most part, they were also unaware if their future was going to be better or worse, so there in offered great reward.

From my perspective, yes studying the Mars environment would be interesting but not worth leaving everything behind. If however there were life forms on Mars or something "better" than what's available on Earth, then it might be an interesting prospect.

Re: Applicants wanted for a one way ticket to Mars

#17

Post by edwinkite »

Send people when there's a coherent plan for them to do something useful.

Not before.

(1) Oliver Morton: "The fact that there are plenty of people who might volunteer ... does not mean that it would be right to indulge them.

If they live, they do so because of unparalleled spending. A world where a select few gets hundreds of millions, at the very least, invested annually merely to keep them alive while equally deserving people die in large numbers for want of far less is not a very attractive place.

Human Mars exploration is indeed a fine goal, and it is quite possible that fairly early on there will be some who elect to stay. But the only real argument for doing it sooner rather than later is the selfish one of wanting to see/participate in it personally.

There is something poetic about the notion of death on Mars, or of choosing to die there - Clarke's Transit of Earth caught that nicely. But Liebestod is not a good basis for public policy."

http://mainlymartian.blogs.com/semijournal/2009/09/oneway-to...

(2) Funding large risky space missions through advertising is not credible. Cash needs peak ~3 years before Mars arrival. The team building the British Mars lander tried hard to raise money from advertising - with help from M&C Saatchi - but "failed to raise any external funding guarantees." Hunting for sponsors "seriously hindered the orderly build-up of the project engineering team," contributing to the 2003 loss of the spacecraft over Isidis Planitia.

Crash investigation: http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/ukspaceagency/docs/space-scienc...

Re: Applicants wanted for a one way ticket to Mars

#18

Post by andyking »

hcarvalhoalves wrote: post #10

More click-bait. This seems to describe a reality show, without further implications.

There was a reality show along these lines a few years ago - how I remember this, goodness only knows: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Cadets_(TV_series)

Re: Applicants wanted for a one way ticket to Mars

#20

Post by kaybe »

Myrmornis wrote: post #9
anigbrowl wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine if she'd said yes. About a week later the tabloids would be screaming 'NASA to launch astronauts on death mission.' She wasn't trying to humiliate you, she was engaged in her job of doing public outreach.

So as a scientist, speaking to young scientists, perhaps she should have said something like "First please note that while the following answer may be the truth, the nature of my job sometimes compels me to give non-truthful answers." Perhaps such a disclaimer should be given by any "scientist" whose PR operations sometimes preclude accuracy?

It is more the distinction between the official line and their personal opinion. In more private contexts (and with some beer) you can have some interesting conversations. (Did you know that the people on the ISS have not tried to invent any cool 0g games? "but juggling is really easy" ahh, the possibilities..)
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