One Way Outbound
by xaosseed
There was an OpEd piece noting that A One-Way Ticket to Mars could get volunteers and shouldn’t be discounted out of hand.
I agree – most of my family back two generations went to the US – by the numbers, I’m actually one of the tiny Irish offshoot of a large American family. They weren’t imagining they would be coming back much or ever unless they prospered on arrival. Are we too squeamish these days? Wasn’t too long ago that things were considered worth the price of human lives – are only wars worth it now? Where are the rocket ship test pilots, for instance.
Would you take a one way ticket to Mars as a colony pioneer?
Comments
If we keep the default WP template, we need to add a prominent author field to the front page display. I think I know who wrote this, but it might not be so transparent for our other readers. :)
I’d take the ticket, given the opportunity.
They have an engineering saying: ‘The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese’. I think I would hold off, unless it were to happen at the very end of my life.
Interesting concept. One key question is whether you intend the trip to be a colonist trip or a suicide exploration mission. Bear in mind that Columbus set off intending to return, as did Magellan.
In terms of exploration missions, sending people off on highly dangerous adventures with the intention that it’s at least possible that they survive them is something that people would accept, but sending people to certain doom is less so. Neil Armstrong once said he figured it was a 50-50 shot that he’d make it back from the moon, and he was happy to take that risk.
Sending out a colonist ship with enough gear to establish a permanent (or at least long-term) base on Mars is indeed a goal I could get behind. The key is that it would need at least a basic level industrial capacity to forge materials needed for repairs and expansion of the colony.