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Scientists propose one-way trips to Mars
Topic Started: Nov 15 2010, 05:19 PM (235 Views)
Copper
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Shortstop

These guys are nuts.

However I have taken the liberty to submit several names from this forum as volunteers.


http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2010-11-15-mars_N.htm

Quote:
 

Scientists propose one-way trips to Mars

PULLMAN, Wash. (AP) — Invoking the spirit of Star Trek in a scholarly article entitled To Boldly Go, two scientists contend human travel to Mars could happen much more quickly and cheaply if the missions are made one-way. They argue that it would be little different from early settlers to North America, who left Europe with little expectation of return.
"The main point is to get Mars exploration moving," said Dirk Schulze-Makuch of Washington State University, who wrote the article in the latest Journal of Cosmology with Paul Davies of Arizona State University. The colleagues state — in one of 55 articles in the issue devoted to exploring Mars — that humans must begin colonizing another planet as a hedge against a catastrophe on Earth.

Mars is a six-month flight away, possesses surface gravity, an atmosphere, abundant water, carbon dioxide and essential minerals. They propose the missions start by sending two two-person teams, in separate ships, to Mars. More colonists and regular supply ships would follow.

The technology already exists, or is within easy reach, they wrote.

An official for NASA said the space agency envisions manned missions to Mars in the next few decades, but that the planning decidedly involves round trips.

President Obama informed NASA last April that he "'believed by the mid-2030s that we could send humans to orbit Mars and safely return them to Earth. And that a landing would soon follow,'" said agency spokesman Michael Braukus.

No where did Obama suggest the astronauts be left behind.

"We want our people back," Braukus said.

Retired Apollo 14 astronaut Ed Mitchell, who walked on the Moon, was also critical of the one-way idea.

"This is premature," Mitchell wrote in an e-mail. "We aren't ready for this yet."

Davies and Schulze-Makuch say it's important to realize they're not proposing a "suicide mission."

"The astronauts would go to Mars with the intention of staying for the rest of their lives, as trailblazers of a permanent human Mars colony," they wrote, while acknowledging the proposal is a tough sell for NASA, with its intense focus on safety.

They think the private sector might be a better place to try their plan.

"What we would need is an eccentric billionaire," Schulze-Makuch said. "There are people who have the money to put this into reality."

Indeed, British tycoon Richard Branson, PayPal founder Elon Musk and Amazon.com Inc. CEO Jeff Bezos are among the rich who are involved in private space ventures.

Isolated humans in space have long been a staple of science fiction movies, from Robinson Crusoe on Mars to 2001: A Space Odyssey to a flurry of recent movies such as Solaris and Moon. In many of the plots, the lonely astronauts fall victim to computers, madness or aliens.

Psychological profiling and training of the astronauts, plus constant communication with Earth, will reduce debilitating mental strains, the two scientists said.

"They would in fact feel more connected to home than the early Antarctic explorers," according to the article.

But the mental health of humans who spent time in space has been extensively studied. Depression can set in, people become irritated with each other, and sleep can be disrupted, the studies have found. The knowledge that there is no quick return to Earth would likely make that worse.

Davies is a physicist whose research focuses on cosmology, quantum field theory, and astrobiology. He was an early proponent of the theory that life on Earth may have come from Mars in rocks ejected by asteroid and comet impacts.

Schulze-Makuch works in the Earth Sciences department at WSU and is the author of two books about life on other planets. His focus is eco-hydrogeology, which includes the study of water on planets and moons of our solar system and how those could serve as a potential habitat for microbial life.

The peer-reviewed Journal of Cosmology covers astronomy, astrobiology, Earth sciences and life.

Schulze-Makuch and Davies contend that Mars has abundant resources to help the colonists become self-sufficient over time. The colony should be next to a large ice cave, to provide shelter from radiation, plus water and oxygen, they wrote.

They believe the one-way trips could start in two decades.

"You would send a little bit older folks, around 60 or something like that," Schulze-Makuch said, bringing to mind the aging heroes who save the day in Space Cowboys.

That's because the mission would undoubtedly reduce a person's lifespan, from a lack of medical care and exposure to radiation. That radiation would also damage human reproductive organs, so sending people of childbearing age is not a good idea, he said.

There have been seniors in space, including John Glenn, who was 77 when he flew on the space shuttle in 1998.

Still, Schulze-Makuch believes many people would be willing to make the sacrifice.

The Mars base would offer humanity a "lifeboat" in the event Earth becomes uninhabitable, they said.

"We are on a vulnerable planet," Schulze-Makuch said. "Asteroid impact can threaten us, or a supernova explosion. If we want to survive as a species, we have to expand into the solar system and likely beyond."



The Confederate soldier was peculiar in that he was ever ready to fight, but never ready to submit to the routine duty and discipline of the camp or the march. The soldiers were determined to be soldiers after their own notions, and do their duty, for the love of it, as they thought best. Carlton McCarthy
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Kincaid
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HOLY CARP!!!
Popular Science reported on a nuclear-reactor powered plasma engine to get to Mars in 39 days.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb242/is_201011/ai_n56229936/
Kincaid - disgusted Republican Partisan since 2006.
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AndyD
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Senior Carp
Quote:
 
humans must begin colonizing another planet as a hedge against a catastrophe on Earth.


Wasn't it Carl Sagan who said something like "If the dinosaurs had a space programme, they'd still be here today"
Every morning the soul is once again as good as new, and again one offers it to one's brothers & sisters in life.

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jon-nyc
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Cheers
I have trouble viewing the survival of humans post-earth as all that important.
In my defense, I was left unsupervised.
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Frank_W
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Resident Misanthrope
Me too, Jon. As a species, taken as a whole, I'd say we probably deserve to be destroyed.
Anatomy Prof: "The human body has about 20 sq. meters of skin."
Me: "Man, that's a lot of lampshades!"
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Piano*Dad
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Bull-Carp
Somehow, I don't think Jon is making an ethical argument against humanity. ;)
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KlavierBauer
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HOLY CARP!!!
An animatter engine can get us there a lot quicker...
Let's get that hadron juiced up and creating some antimatter!
"I realize you want him to touch you all over and give you babies, but his handling of the PR side really did screw the pooch." - Ivory Thumper
"He said sleepily: "Don't worry mom, my dick is like hot logs in the morning." - Apple

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Luke's Dad
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Emperor Pengin
If this was 15 years ago, I would sooo volunteer.
The problem with having an open mind is that people keep trying to put things in it.
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Frank_W
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Resident Misanthrope
KlavierBauer
Nov 16 2010, 09:09 AM
An animatter engine can get us there a lot quicker...
Let's get that hadron juiced up and creating some antimatter!
I wish they'd make an intelligence producing machine, get it juiced up, and start creating some intelligent life on this planet. :tongue:
Anatomy Prof: "The human body has about 20 sq. meters of skin."
Me: "Man, that's a lot of lampshades!"
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JBryan
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I am the grey one
That would take intelligence would it not?
"Any man who would make an X rated movie should be forced to take his daughter to see it". - John Wayne


There is a line we cross when we go from "I will believe it when I see it" to "I will see it when I believe it".


Henry II: I marvel at you after all these years. Still like a democratic drawbridge: going down for everybody.

Eleanor: At my age there's not much traffic anymore.

From The Lion in Winter.
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Frank_W
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Resident Misanthrope
Right... Oroborous... LOL
Anatomy Prof: "The human body has about 20 sq. meters of skin."
Me: "Man, that's a lot of lampshades!"
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