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."

Comments

Re:information please! not just hot air!

[Acidic_Diarrhea]

Mars Fact Sheet:

Surface gravity ratio [Mars/Earth] 0.379
Escape velocity ratio [Mars/Earth] 0.450

So no, it's not getting quite close. Let's say we need 1 unit of power to lift off from Earth, we would need less than half a unit to lift off from Mars. Plus, there may be resources on Mars that could be used as fuel, given the proper technology to harness/convert/whatever those resources.