Just saw on Yahoo news that a man wants to send colonists to Mars on one way trips. First there would be survival facilities sent, then the first people. Subsequent flights would bring more and more colonists. The bottom line, though, is that nobody gets to ever come home; they would live the rest of their lives on Mars.
Just curious how many, if any, folks would go for such a mission?
Just curious how many, if any, folks would go for such a mission?
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Look at it this way: Did the earliest colonists to America have round trip tickets? No. Did they know what they'd find here or know how they'd survive? No. Did they all survive? No. But enough did survive to found a nation. Such a venture, or adventure, would not be for everyone. Or even most. But it only takes a relative few to establish a foothold.
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It might be surprising how many.
When I was in my early 20's, I would have loved and opportunity like this. Even if it is in all actuality a suicide mission.
Before we could send colonists to mars, we would need to first land robots that could excavate permanent shelters and place solar collectors in orbit or micro nuclear reactors at the base. That alone is a huge undertaking that won't start for at least a few decades and probably 50-100 years from now. It's simply not cost effective to send materials to mars before we have a large, permanent manned space station and a manned colony on the moon.
When I was in my early 20's, I would have loved and opportunity like this. Even if it is in all actuality a suicide mission.
Before we could send colonists to mars, we would need to first land robots that could excavate permanent shelters and place solar collectors in orbit or micro nuclear reactors at the base. That alone is a huge undertaking that won't start for at least a few decades and probably 50-100 years from now. It's simply not cost effective to send materials to mars before we have a large, permanent manned space station and a manned colony on the moon.
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I agree, there would be a sufficient number of volunteers, but perhaps not enough quality volunteers. Immigrants freaking out half way to Mars, or shortly after arrival, would not be a pretty picture.
Suppose we sent one family of 5 on each flight = 100 total for 20 flights at an average of a billion dollars per person plus a trillion dollars for the survival facilities sent ahead of time, plus a million dollars per day for one million days until the colony is self sustaining. If we start spending the million dollars per day in 2012, and double the spending each year, we might have 50 live people on Mars by 2062, including several children born on Mars or enroute to Mars. There would be perhaps 54 dead immigrants, but likely 4 of them would have died if they had stayed home. The big problem is where would the about 2.1 trillion dollars come from? = $3000 for every man woman and child presently on planet Earth? Possibly it will be less expensive if we plan to deliver the first 5 in 2062, and the other 95 distributed to 2099, assuming we have some technical advances the rest of this century. Return is not entirely impossible as the immigrants will have up to 20 landing modules which they can possibly modify and refuel for a very risky return flight to Earth, as technology improves, for the very few who wish to risk the return flight, most of whom would be 2nd or third generation humans on Mars.
Suppose we sent one family of 5 on each flight = 100 total for 20 flights at an average of a billion dollars per person plus a trillion dollars for the survival facilities sent ahead of time, plus a million dollars per day for one million days until the colony is self sustaining. If we start spending the million dollars per day in 2012, and double the spending each year, we might have 50 live people on Mars by 2062, including several children born on Mars or enroute to Mars. There would be perhaps 54 dead immigrants, but likely 4 of them would have died if they had stayed home. The big problem is where would the about 2.1 trillion dollars come from? = $3000 for every man woman and child presently on planet Earth? Possibly it will be less expensive if we plan to deliver the first 5 in 2062, and the other 95 distributed to 2099, assuming we have some technical advances the rest of this century. Return is not entirely impossible as the immigrants will have up to 20 landing modules which they can possibly modify and refuel for a very risky return flight to Earth, as technology improves, for the very few who wish to risk the return flight, most of whom would be 2nd or third generation humans on Mars.
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