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One-Way Ticket to Mars?
ahogue writes "Paul Davies, who has written several very accessible books on physics and cosmology, proposes an interesting way to get a manned mission to Mars - leave them there. [NYTimes, free reg. req.] While it may sounds shocking at first, the financial and exploratory benefits seem to outweigh the social negatives. Any volunteers?" Reader docanime writes with some sober news: "All this recent talk about Mars rovers and orbiters has made one space fan checking out how well Mars has been deflecting and destroying the space probes. The Mars Scorecard lists all the known fly-by, orbital, and landing attempts/failures made by humans. In case you're curious, Mars is winning 20 to 16."
Can't you just hook up one of my legs to a life support system and send it there? at least we will have a "part" of a man there. And I can say I have 1 foot in this world and 1 in the next.
"It's so convenient to have a system where everyone is a criminal" - A. Hitler
I nominate George W Bush to be first in line. :)
"Mars needs men!"
A few days after landing...
"Mars needs women!"
Send paypal donations to DarlMcBrideMarsTicket@yahoo.com.
Socks!
I doubt that Darl would go for it. Where would SCO be without his leadership?
Think of it as Earth's hobby.
As for the name of the spaceship, I suggest naming it the "B" Ark.
The trouble comes, of course, when the crew gets into an argument over certain marital infidelities, kill each other, and the Martians living there take in the child that was conceived in space and raise him as their own, then send him back to Earth to cause a hippie revolution of a scale that man cannot even comprehend. (or grok)
Or maybe not.
--Stephen
If it's one-way, I nominate the cast of "Space Cowboys." That was a terrible movie.
Did you ever notice that *nix doesn't even cover Linux?
Do you think it would be hard to get approved for a credit card a year before you left?
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When your peeve-count reaches the 7 digits, you aren't talking about pets. You're talking about the mother of all peeve zoos.
No man, Beagle has been too busy digging up Martian dinosaur bones to bother with answering any calls. Its just what dogs do.
The entire United States.
Then the rest of us can get back to living again.
Actually, as a practising Satanist, I use "heaven-sent" to mean "trouble coming".
Ummm, because Bush needs to get reelected?
:)
Just a guess
We will need to colonize Mars! Here's what I propose:
General "Buck" Turgidson: Doctor, you mentioned the ratio of ten women to each man. Now, wouldn't that necessitate the abandonment of the so-called monogamous sexual relationship, I mean, as far as men were concerned?
Dr. Strangelove: Regrettably, yes. But it is, you know, a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious... service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature.
Ambassador de Sadesky: I must confess, you have an astonishingly good idea there, Doctor.
I guess Fox can do this next.
I suggest it be a Celebrity Survivor!
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Lets look into this "volunteer" thing: we are looking for a person ready to give up their whole life, move to an almost 100% barren place where he/she will soon die utterly alone!
You are right. Sending Darl is a much better idea.
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
These guys seem to have that problem solved already.
do not read this line twice.
People are living in caves you insensitive clod.
Melius mori in libertate quam vivere in servitute.
Pet Peeve #1977832: I hate it when they use overt religious terms in scientific articles. Keep religion relegated to where it belongs and keep science scientific.
No kidding, if the opportunity was heaven-sent, why do we have to do all the work?
--
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Which most likely can't cook or do dishes either... maybe not such a bad idea after all.
One way trip? How d'you think they colonised Australia :-)
Cheers
Simon
Hal Spacejock: Science Fiction with Nuts
By "Hebrew" you of course mean "Greek". And by "beginings" you of course mean "birth".
Mother is the best bet and don't let Satan draw you too fast.
Would that be $699 to actually visit Mars or $699 to look at something that might look like Mars but I have to sign an NDA before I get to see it? And would the same fee apply if I just want to visit a Mars-like planet in another star system?
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
Ben
I volunteer my boss! He's so full of hot air he could singlehandedly create an atmosphere.
cragen
Plus all humanity is stuck on one planet. That's bad! There are numerous things which could wipe out the entire race. But put humans on other worlds, and you begin to ensure the race has a future.
What would we call it? I dunno...the acronym for "Redundant Array of Inexpensive Planets" probably won't go over very well.
Why is it that the proponents of "one nation under God" are so eager to get rid of "liberty and justice for all"?
Anyone who's played Missile Command knows this - we need to send probe missions out in pairs. One is a big, fat, juicy-looking decoy that we send down right around the same time the _real_ mission starts entry of Mars atmosphere. The Martians go for the decoy, and our real mission lands undisturbed.
Either that or we nuke them from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
Yeah I got first post!!!
Kinda laggy, but everything's looking good up here. I just found a new rock that was like a little bit redder than the other one I found yesterday. Cool.
Please send more corn.
Can I bring the redhead from the OSDN personals ad?
-- Having a Creationist Museum is like having an Atheist place of worship
But what about a **NEON** Genesis? Eh? Eh?
...I'll shut up now.
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Actually you could probably finance the whole deal by selling the Television rights to MTV's The Real World.
Problem is the producers would want to choose the people and we would end up with a gay guy, a guy with aids, a lesbian girl, and a hot blond bimbo.
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Without the USSR on our team the score would be Earth 11 - Mars 6. We need to send them back to the little leagues!
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Of course they do, right after we send up the telephone-handset sanitizers. ;)
-T
I thought the one-way trip was the plan for that N*Sync guy's trip to space....
True. But you could find a few. I'd volunteer for it, and I'd qualify. I know enough about geology that you could say "find me some interesting rocks, break them apart with this hammer, and put them under this microscope and tell me if you see anything interesting", and succeed. (I could also handle orders like "Remember rock AF41Q that you found six weeks ago? Take it off the shelf and put it in the sample return vehicle. Take rock CX29B out of the sample return vehicle, because AF41Q is more interesting.")
Anything else I need to know about geology, I could learn from watching videos and reading textbooks archived onto a set of DVDs that would accompany me during the six-month trip.
Two hours of my time (or yours, or damn near anyone else's) on Mars would teach us more about the history of wherever we landed than we've learned in the past 30 years.
> Tonight on your local cable network: LIVE from MARS; Are they still alive? Any progress with building the return vehicle? What happens between John and Mary? Do not miss their high flying sex experience!"
I'm with you on the Reality TV version of it. You could probably fund the whole mission by selling advertisements and (in states where it's legal) betting on the outcome. "Tonight! The air supply is down to 3% after the oxygen scrubbers went down in Month Six! Can our crew effect repairs in the last hours remaining? And if they can't, tonight will be the grand finale, when we find out who'll be the last one gasping? PLACE YOUR BETS NOW!"
Yes, they all died. Have you ever met one of them? Of course not, becayse all the settlers died a few centuries ago.
"There is no teacher but the enemy."-Mazer Rackham
...don't bother coming into work on monday.
Mars is teeming with an army of vampires below the surface. There's no life there, only undead. Out of the reach of the Sun's beneficient rays, the vampires merely shun the surface, the way humans shun the depths of Earth, each from primordial fear of the other. The iron content of the Martian soil provides the comfort to the biters, the way humidity comforts humans on Earth.
Now these interplanetary probes threaten the stalemate we've enjoyed for generations. A one-way trip is the only acceptable human mission, lest they bring the pestilence back with them. Meanwhile, join me in developing the sunlaser, which stores the beneficient rays of the Sun in optical storage, for discharge against the horde of biters waiting across the vacuum gap. Stake 'em and bake 'em!
--
make install -not war
Yeah Canada, he means YOU!
Though a freeze-dried desert today, it was once warm and wet
*sigh* Sounds like my wife.
Sony ha
NASA was interviewing professionals they were figuring on sending to Mars. The touchy part was that only one guy could go and it would be a one way trip.
The interviewer asked the first applicant, an engineer, how much he wanted to be paid for going.
"One million dollars," the engineer answered. "And I want to donate it all to my alma mater--Rice University."
The next applicant was a doctor, and the interviewer asked him the same question.
"Two millions dollars," the doctor said. "I want to give a million to my family and leave the other million for the advancement of medical research."
The last applicant was a lawyer. When asked how much money he wanted, he whispered in the interviewer's ear, "Three million dollars."
"Why so much more than the others?" the interviewer asked.
The lawyer replied, "You give me three million, I'll give you one million, I'll keep a million, and we'll send the engineer."