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Will Mars be a One-way Trip?
alexj33 writes "Will humans ever really go to Mars? Let's face it, the obstacles are quite daunting. Not only are there numerous, difficult, technical issues to overcome, but the political will and perseverance of any one nation to undertake such an arduous task is huge. However, one former NASA engineer believes a human mission to Mars is quite possible, and such an event would unify the world as never before. But Jim McLane's proposal includes a couple of major caveats: the trip to Mars should be one-way, and have a crew of only one person."
To berate NASA for not wanting to send a multi million (billion?) dollar mission to mars with a pilot that is, after all, suicidal is just asinine.
Experience teaches only the teachable. -AH
I can think of at least two guys I'd like to volunteer for this duty. They'd be perfect, and they'll be available as early as January 21, 2009.
I say Mars is an ideal Junket for Congressmen. They love to travel I say give them the trip of their lifetimes. They spend so much money here it's gotta be cheaper just to send them to Mars where they can do some good and a lot less harm.
You should at least pretend to do so, that way you'll have more volunteers.
**TODO** [X] Steal someone elses sig.
Or just send someone we don't care so much about. Perhaps someone whose name starts with 'D' and ends with 'arl McBride'?
They should send a Slashdot user. We're all used to that "without sex" deal.
Get your ass to Mars.
Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
I bet Rockhound would do it either way!
Sam! If you will let me be,
I will try them.
You will see.
They could send Balmer. Just make sure he has a chair to fight off any Martians with.
Just mark the return ticket April 1st 2130. What are the odds he'll look at the return date before he leaves?
Better yet, you could, through implanted memories, convince the person that he's not really going to Mars... or that he's already actually on Mars... that he's a secret agent on Mars...
Houston to Mars mission. Do you read, over?
BILLY MAYS HERE!!!
There's a perfect xkcd for my sig but I'm too lazy to look it up. sudo someone go find it.
Ace Rimmer would stand up to the task
... what a guy!
Make SELinux enforcing again!
Let's make it a quasi-reality show, then. So that it can be ratings-driven, commercially-viable, and even sponsored by anyone willing to buy air time or space time. It will have all the ingredients (the backbiting, sexual undertones) except for the amateur singing, and even make the nerds or geeks tune in because for chrissakes it's science and tech. They're fighting each other, trying to find out who the real--or better--astronaut is, that's manning the ship. The real deal, for instance, could be the ship is on autopilot, or piloted remotely. One episode could feature the ship going off-course for sh*ts and giggles. In the galley, even after you provide all the necessary ingredients to the computer, it will instead give you the perfect cup of tea. And to nudge everyone a little closer to the edge, the computer insists on calling everyone Dave, even after proper introductions have been made.
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
(I assume that you are typing about medicine; if you are typing about sex, have you not heard of celibacy?
Most people on this forum are, uh, "intimately" familiar with that term.)
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
Four should be plenty. We went from two people to where we are today in 6000 years. And there was a great flood in there somewhere too.
Demanding constant attention will only lead to attention.
Think of the possibilities!
For immunity contests you could have:
A Mt. Olympus climb,
Resource prospecting activities,
Water ice collection trips,
Locking down solar panels, antennas, and other breakables before dust storms,
Environment leak repair due to a puncture from a sandstorm.
The winner gets *$10 million*!
If there are hidden hostile intelligent martians, then you just keep the contestants around for a second season called "Lost: Mars"
Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde. - Voltaire
You could get lots of volunteers this way, especially if you used the implanted memories to convince them that the women of the plannet have 3 boobs...
"It seems that we are at the age where life stops giving us things, and starts taking them away..." Indiana Jones
Being in the realm of science fiction, you can bet that in a fit of irony an immortality pill will be invented shortly after you leave. One which can't survive the trip to mars. What a twist!
Everything will be taken away from you.
I'll probably get modded down for being such a pansy about home comforts and all . . . but I am rather partial to breathable air.
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
<xml><I><am><so><damn>Web 2.0</damn></so></am></I></xml>
I am rather partial to breathable air.
I take it you don't live in LA then?
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
...then put all the hair dressers and telephone cleaners in it...
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
You are welcome on my lawn.
No, they'll just cut your internet access.
See, that's the great thing about space. In space, there's no gravity. So if we have a dude on Mars, he can throw samples back to Earth. It doesn't matter how much they weigh, or how far away the Earth is -- without gravity, such things don't matter. Much cheaper than building a robot to do that -- additionally, a human will be less likely to get his wheels stuck in the mud when crossing slightly uneven terrain. Also, there's the matter of what kind of samples he throws -- a robot would just pick up rocks willy-nilly and throw them back to Earth. A human could look for pretty ones to throw.
Tell me you don't work in health care.
"A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
If you want to be remembered, you should stop going around incognit000.
Sorry, couldn't resist. =p I'm not sure I could do it, but I agree with your reasoning.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
ssssh man, this is /. If you're going suggest sending bees, at least make them robotic killer bees...
I don't therefore I'm not.
You assume the other person waits to finish hearing what you have to say before talking back. Obviously, you're not married.
"Don't you know you're going to shock the monkey?"- Peter Gabriel
No, Marsicans, but these aliens are really undocumented.
This next song is very sad. Please clap along. -- Robin Zander
I mean, I guess Phobos has the "fear" covered...
2. Think of the robots.
Please, won't somebody?!
You must be new here.
rewriting history since 2109
Psh, sex is overrated. We're nerds right? So long as he doesn't mind internet pages taking 10 minutes to load he's set, am I right? ;)
Weaksauce as they say...
Actually, a fair part of the population on Slashdot these days live in stable relationships and have kids. Me, i've got 3, but I think that's somewhat over-average.
I think it's safe to say that three relationships is a bit above average.
Shop as usual. And avoid panic buying.
Said the one with UID 667.959 to the one with UID 15.695 ....
In fact, forget the interplanetary mission. And the blackjack. ...Somebody had to finish the joke.
Relax I just want some peanuts.
I'll make my own interplanetary mission...with hookers, and blackjack.
What happens on Mars, stays on Mars.
That's sort of the point with one-way missions.
Whoah! Does that mean you had sex like, three times?? That's like, OMG, dude!! Can I be your friend?
Your head a splode
/. ID's don't have to be integers anymore? When did this happen? Do the numbers have to be rational?
If they don't I call dibs on 3.1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679...
FGD 135
"Some jokes never get old" should be "Some jokes never get old, except in Soviet Russia, where the old never get some jokes".
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
I disagree. December 7 is the kind of historic event that lives forever in the national consciousness. No one in our nation is ever going to forget the day that our homeland was attacked by the cowardly Vietnamese.
I say that we send our greatest national hero, George W. Bush. Just like the astronauts of old, he's a former fighter pilot, and this November, he's going to be looking for a new job, so the timing is perfect!
bah, doesn't mean he's not an Ebayer, could have just bought that character, some lamer who couldn't be arsed with grinding for XP.
Probably pays a chinese kid to karma whore for him during the night too.
What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
They could just fake it all like they did with the moon la no carrier.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
The problem is, how do you find and train an individual that will die on schedule?
Tell him it is the will of Allah.
"An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it." Col. Jeff Cooper
Dude, what about if you went there and your internet connection BROKE? That means NO MORE INTERNET EVER!
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
I doubt anyone will be willing pay that much to hear what the current president has to say.
All his speeches are written for him and even then he has trouble with them thar multi-syllable words.
If anyone want to hear what bush had to say they would be better off hiring dick cheney.
We have the best government that money can buy.
Err... don't take offense, but viagra is a lot cheaper.
Your ad could be here!