Go to Mars...AND DON'T COME BACK!!

[metallicorphan]

no,i am not telling you where to get off

NASA are looking into sending people to Mars(or its orbiting Moons) in say 20 years time to go colonize the planet with no chance of a return trip,so it would be a one way ticket

Sky News

The idea is being investigated by Nasa as it looks at whether astronauts could be flown to the red planet, or its moons, with a view to staying there permanently.

The multi-billion pound project, called Hundred Year Starship, is being led by Nasa's Ames Research Centre, based in California.

It is estimated the cost of such a mission to the red planet could be more than £7bn and may be achieved by 2030.

The Pentagon has already contributed around £600,000 towards the plan and Nasa has put in another £60,000.

But Ames director Pete Worden is hoping for more cash and is trying to attract the world's billionaires to the project.

"The human space programme is now really aimed at settling other worlds. Twenty years ago you had to whisper that in dark bars and get fired.

"Within a few years we will see the first true prototype of a spaceship that will take us between worlds."

Mr Worden said Mr Page had shown interest in the project.

"Larry asked me a couple weeks ago how much it would cost to send people one way to Mars and I told him $10bn (£6.3bn) and his response was: 'Can you get it down to one or two billion?'

They also said a mission to Mars could exploit hardware technologies developed for the Moon programme.

"One approach could be to send four astronauts initially, two on each of two spacecraft, each with a lander and sufficient supplies, to stake a single outpost on Mars.

"A one-way human mission to Mars would be the first step in establishing a permanent human presence on the planet."

Some experts say the price of sending 20 Mars settlers with a one-way ticket would be equal to bringing four astronauts back.

i wonder if this is part of that other test where those 6 guys were being shut away for 6 months or whatever it was in a simulated environment

i personally don't know why they are not sending people to go live on the Moon first,surely it would be 'easier'..but oh well,i don't know much about Science or Physics but all this talk of this kind of stuff does excite me,but i er...think i will stay on this planet thank you

[Bullwinkle]

First of all, I fucking love that we're living in an issue of Amazing Adventures magazine.  We can clone people.  We can teleport things.  Plus some dude has started selling personal jetpacks.  And now we're living on Mars.

What I love most about this project, is that, eventually, the space program will have to basically pimp out its astronauts for it to work*.  Whereas just a few years ago, women were forbidden on these kinds of things, now they're going to be pretty much mandatory for the fucking.  And the baby-making.

I'm still trying to figure out why this is called the Hundred-Year Starship, though.  I figure it has something to do with getting to that Goldilocks planet.  I think it's interesting that NASA seems to keep forgetting an important part of that story.  Bears show up at the end.


*Note the proper American^TM spellings of certain words, mo 

[morlac]

Interesting but it does make me wonder why they cancelled the Orion project to the moon.  Hell they had everything but the rocket close to ready.  I saw the new two new lunar vehicles and they were fully functional and basically ready to roll, the capsule was done but not finalizied.  Yes the bringing back part is what is the budget killer.  That's the main reason they are scraping the Shuttle program as they basically have to rebuild them every time.  I really do need to post those pictures from my behind the scenes tour.  The coolest thing I saw was in the vehicle mock up facility.  It was the bottom half of what appeared to be a cyborg.  I kid you not, it looked like Terminator legs.  I'm not even 100% sure I was supposed to be taking pictures of that, I got some nasty looks from some engineers on that one.

[rshetts2]

Interesting but it does make me wonder why they cancelled the Orion project to the moon.  Hell they had everything but the rocket close to ready.  I saw the new two new lunar vehicles and they were fully functional and basically ready to roll, the capsule was done but not finalizied.  Yes the bringing back part is what is the budget killer.  That's the main reason they are scraping the Shuttle program as they basically have to rebuild them every time.  I really do need to post those pictures from my behind the scenes tour.  The coolest thing I saw was in the vehicle mock up facility.  It was the bottom half of what appeared to be a cyborg.  I kid you not, it looked like Terminator legs.  I'm not even 100% sure I was supposed to be taking pictures of that, I got some nasty looks from some engineers on that one.

You shouldnt have posted this on the internet.....  skynet has found you.......  run if you want to live.......   NOW!

[hispanicgamer]

Dudes! This will be the next Australia. We'll ship all of our criminals there and they will make a great new world for future tourists to go to!

[morlac]

Interesting but it does make me wonder why they cancelled the Orion project to the moon.  Hell they had everything but the rocket close to ready.  I saw the new two new lunar vehicles and they were fully functional and basically ready to roll, the capsule was done but not finalizied.  Yes the bringing back part is what is the budget killer.  That's the main reason they are scraping the Shuttle program as they basically have to rebuild them every time.  I really do need to post those pictures from my behind the scenes tour.  The coolest thing I saw was in the vehicle mock up facility.  It was the bottom half of what appeared to be a cyborg.  I kid you not, it looked like Terminator legs.  I'm not even 100% sure I was supposed to be taking pictures of that, I got some nasty looks from some engineers on that one.

You shouldnt have posted this on the internet.....  skynet has found you.......  run if you want to live.......   NOW!

More like a T-500  

[morlac]

Here's those new lunar rovers (sorry for pic quality..)

Notice the gold rims...nice touch of bling!

[ScubaV]

I can understand looking into this now, since it will take a lot of planning well before it would ever happen, but this article sounds awfully optimistic.  Twenty years?  Probably more like 50+.  And how are you going to find people who are both willing to spend the rest of their lives on Mars and fulfill the government's requirements to being willing to pay their way there (i.e. not batshit crazy and with some decent level of scientific/engineering knowledge and skill for starters).  

It would probably be super cool for the first year or so and then start sucking unbelievably.  Cramped living quarters, nothing to do but explore the planet (admittedly a huge plus at first), totally dependent on supplies from Earth (which will include almost no luxuries), watching your body wither from the reduced gravity, the high chance of going crazy or hating your handful of companions, etc, etc.

[hispanicgamer]

Get your ass to Mars.

Then go the Hilton and flash the Brubaker I.D. at the desk.

[Razgon]

I can understand looking into this now, since it will take a lot of planning well before it would ever happen, but this article sounds awfully optimistic.  Twenty years?  Probably more like 50+.  And how are you going to find people who are both willing to spend the rest of their lives on Mars and fulfill the government's requirements to being willing to pay their way there (i.e. not batshit crazy and with some decent level of scientific/engineering knowledge and skill for starters).  

It would probably be super cool for the first year or so and then start sucking unbelievably.  Cramped living quarters, nothing to do but explore the planet (admittedly a huge plus at first), totally dependent on supplies from Earth (which will include almost no luxuries), watching your body wither from the reduced gravity, the high chance of going crazy or hating your handful of companions, etc, etc.

I think you are looking at this quite wrong - A lot of people should be interested in this. In olden days, when the earth wasnt quite yet explored from the western civilization side at least, lots of people were interested or did this. With different reasons of course, some were trying to earn a paycheck, some were ideologists, some were explorers by heart, others did it out of pure need. I think today will be the same - Many people with similar outlooks to Arthus C Clarke (Dont put all your eggs in one basket) will see the need, some will do it out of lust for adventure, others patriotism, love of manking, what have we. Personally, I'd love to go, but I'll probably be too old by then (38 now), for many many reasons.

As for downsides, yes - there are tons of those, but I'm sure not everyone has gotten so used to the luxury of comfort of todays modern society that we cant be arsed to face some hardship.
Most difficult part of this would be specialists of course, but hey, thats what training is for, right?

[Harkonis]

I can understand looking into this now, since it will take a lot of planning well before it would ever happen, but this article sounds awfully optimistic.  Twenty years?  Probably more like 50+.  And how are you going to find people who are both willing to spend the rest of their lives on Mars and fulfill the government's requirements to being willing to pay their way there (i.e. not batshit crazy and with some decent level of scientific/engineering knowledge and skill for starters).  

It would probably be super cool for the first year or so and then start sucking unbelievably.  Cramped living quarters, nothing to do but explore the planet (admittedly a huge plus at first), totally dependent on supplies from Earth (which will include almost no luxuries), watching your body wither from the reduced gravity, the high chance of going crazy or hating your handful of companions, etc, etc.

I think you are looking at this quite wrong - A lot of people should be interested in this. In olden days, when the earth wasnt quite yet explored from the western civilization side at least, lots of people were interested or did this. With different reasons of course, some were trying to earn a paycheck, some were ideologists, some were explorers by heart, others did it out of pure need. I think today will be the same - Many people with similar outlooks to Arthus C Clarke (Dont put all your eggs in one basket) will see the need, some will do it out of lust for adventure, others patriotism, love of manking, what have we. Personally, I'd love to go, but I'll probably be too old by then (38 now), for many many reasons.

As for downsides, yes - there are tons of those, but I'm sure not everyone has gotten so used to the luxury of comfort of todays modern society that we cant be arsed to face some hardship.
Most difficult part of this would be specialists of course, but hey, thats what training is for, right?

this part made me chuckle

[Razgon]

LOUL! Okay...its early morning here :-D

[CeeKay]

don't mock his love of manking, the lower gravity would be a boon.

[farley2k]

So if they go without enough people to make a viable population then they are really just going to do scientific research until they die or they could work to setup infrastructure for the next group.  Noble goals.

[WarPig]

Get your ass to Mars.

Then go the Hilton and flash the Brubaker I.D. at the desk.

Two weeks.

[Purge]

don't mock his love of manking, the lower gravity would be a boon.

I prefer womanqueen. Each to their own, I suppose.

PS. I'm too scared to either
A) Google without safesearch, or
B) try www.manking.com

[Scuzz]

Why can't we do stuff like this without the military.......just take the money away from the military and give it to NASA for space research......?

[cheeba]

There's no good reason to send people out and not bring them back. We've had the technology to land on a planet and return for over 40 years now. It would be incredibly sad if the first person to touch Mars never returned.

[raydude]

As for downsides, yes - there are tons of those, but I'm sure not everyone has gotten so used to the luxury of comfort of todays modern society that we cant be arsed to face some hardship.

There is no "some hardship" on Mars. Its all hardship all the time, every day. No breaks, no vacation, no return trip to Earth. Its not like Total Recall where they will find some alien technology that suddenly makes the atmosphere breathable. You're either in a suit while outside or in a capsule while inside. That's just the harsh reality of living on a planet that doesn't support human life.

[Scuzz]

There's no good reason to send people out and not bring them back. We've had the technology to land on a planet and return for over 40 years now. It would be incredibly sad if the first person to touch Mars never returned.

But a one-way trip would be much cheaper to do.........

[morlac]

There's no good reason to send people out and not bring them back. We've had the technology to land on a planet and return for over 40 years now. It would be incredibly sad if the first person to touch Mars never returned.

Well except for the monetary reasons.  Easily quadruples the budget but more likely 10+ times.  Unfortunatly cash dictates NASA policy more than anything.

[ScubaV]

As raydude alluded to, I don't think it's fair to compare Earth explorers to these hypothetical Mars colonists.  Mainly because Earth can support life while Mars cannot.  The absolute one-way nature of this proposal isn't a small consideration either.

[Razgon]

As for downsides, yes - there are tons of those, but I'm sure not everyone has gotten so used to the luxury of comfort of todays modern society that we cant be arsed to face some hardship.

There is no "some hardship" on Mars. Its all hardship all the time, every day. No breaks, no vacation, no return trip to Earth. Its not like Total Recall where they will find some alien technology that suddenly makes the atmosphere breathable. You're either in a suit while outside or in a capsule while inside. That's just the harsh reality of living on a planet that doesn't support human life.

but surely, we can bring a couch?

[Huw the Poo]

I'll go if you go, Raz.

[CeeKay]

Don't we have a whole list of celebrities we can send?

[Ironrod]

I would sign up in a heartbeat. I'm not fond of life on earth. Unfortunately I don't have any skills to contribute except maybe to be the first Martian shopkeeper.

Finding malcontents who are also valued and well-adjusted members of society would be tricky.

[metallicorphan]

Don't we have a whole list of celebrities we can send?

I think they went to the Sun

[EngineNo9]

Don't we have a whole list of celebrities we can send?

I think they went to the Sun

Yeah, we wouldn't want them breeding and colonizing Mars with a whole new breed of horrible super-celebrities, would we?

[Scuzz]

if i volunteered to go would they let me dl'd games and play them all I wanted to.....

[CeeKay]

if i volunteered to go would they let me dl'd games and play them all I wanted to.....

you could play 'Mission to Mars'.... HARDCORE MODE!

[metallicorphan]

if i volunteered to go would they let me dl'd games and play them all I wanted to.....

LOL,i was thinking about taking the current XBOX of the time....but playing online would be a bit shit,imagine the lag!!

[Wargus]

If you haven't you should all read the Mars Trilogy (warning - the linked wiki contains spoilers)  by Kim Stanley Robinson. It is a fantastic look at the colonization of mars from the day of the first colonists through terraforming along with all the political ramifications on Earth. The series starts with Red Mars (link to Amazon).