Would you go to Mars?

[Winston]

Let's say you, of all people, were contacted by NASA and asked if you'd like to give it a shot at being the first man on Mars.

Conditions are as follows:

1) You'd have to pack up immediately and begin your training, which will last for 18 months. You'd have to give up your job/education and leave your family and friends behind.

2) Launch of the spaceship, with you in it, would be on 1 December 2006, and the mission would be carried out with present day technology, nothing futuristic about it, just what we have today.

3) You'll have to go all by yourself, so that would mean no human contact for the 16 months that the mission will last. It would take you 7 months to get there, you'd get to spend 2-3 weeks on Mars, and then another 7 months for the return flight. Plus there's the quarantine of 1 month, if you manage to return, because...

4) ...they emphasize that the mission assessment analysts have come to the conclusion there's a 50% chance that something goes terribly wrong that will either kill you right there or leave you stranded on Mars or flying in space with no hope of returning to Earth.

With all this in mind, would you do it?

I'd go, provided they allow smoking on the spaceship (negotiable), and set up an internet connection for me.

[Japher]

and a life time supply of slim jims

[JohnT]

No.

[Verto]

If I could bring my gf, yes.

[Lancer]

No. Life's too good.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Actually, it'd take you a lot longer than 7 months to get there, and your time on planet would have to be significantly longer because there are only certain launch windows in each direction where the positions of the earth and mars are correct for the shortest possible flight trajectory.

[Ecthy]

under those conditions, no. 30% chance of everything to go wrong yes, but 50% no.

[Winston]

We all have to die anyway.

10 billion people must have lived and died up till now, I say it's worth the risk to try and achieve something this historic. And if something should go wrong, you'd still have had some very unique experiences, and you'll be going out with the right spirit instead of lingering on in an old folks home for 15 years.

Irrelevant to me since I smoke, but still...

[Ecthy]

Being shot to Mars by a Dane

[Odin]

As a colonist, yes. Alone, no.

Working on terraforming would be fun, though.

[Vesayen]

Live or die..... you would be famous, forever. 10,000 years from now our geneticaly modified super children will still be learning about you in school.

Sucks to die prematurley in an awfull way... but you'd be remember, for as long as human civilization exists.

[Donegeal]

YOu'd be remembers ONLY if you got there. If something went wrong on the way, nobody would remember.

As an example, everybody (ok, most people) today knows that Lindbergh was the first to fly across the Atlantic solo. He was not, however, the first to attempt it. The people who died trying to before him are forgotten.

[Immortal Wombat]

I'd go. Why not?

Actually, I'd have to say not now. Maybe in 20 years.

[Atahualpa]

That's some stupid hypothetical situation... they would never send someone out all by himself. You'd at least work in a team... plus, they would seek someone with good education... so they wouldn't hire a student and tell him to quit what he's been doing now... they'd seek an engineer or whatever... pretty sure that your education would need to be finished already.

Plus you violate your own conditions... no human contact does include no internet.

I leave you to choose one of these "you've-been-pwned" smilies however:

[Spiffor]

Re: Would you go to Mars?

Originally posted by Winston
1) You'd have to pack up immediately and begin your training, which will last for 18 months. You'd have to give up your job/education and leave your family and friends behind.

+

4) ...they emphasize that the mission assessment analysts have come to the conclusion there's a 50% chance that something goes terribly wrong that will either kill you right there or leave you stranded on Mars or flying in space with no hope of returning to Earth.

= no.

I don't feel like telling my family and friends "I'm going right now, and there's 50% chance you won't ever hear of me again. Bye!".

Edit: didn't vote, cause the isolation is not the problem, and the danger only indirectly so. It's the perspectivew of abandoning my loved ones that I reject.