Mission to Mars?

You are surprised to get a Skype call from the President. An unfortunate run-in with a weed whacker has left the crew of the first manned mission to Mars one short. An extensive search by the NSA has determined that you are the first choice replacement (mainly because you fit the suit, but nevertheless, it is you). He asks if you would like to join the crew and travel to Mars..."and back" (you politely refrain from asking why he makes an, "air quote" gesture when he says, "and back"). The roundtrip is expected to take 15 years. The only tricky thing is that the blast off window only opens once a year, and the next opening is in seven days.

What is your answer?

Quote: Ayecarumba

You are surprised to get a Skype call from the President.

Very much so. I don't have Skype ;)

I have no desire to spend 15 years in a small capsule, eat dried food, and drink filtered water reconstituted from piss. Not at my age. Not at any age. This country would lose its will 4 years in and cut funding forcing us to turn back.

Quote: AZDuffman

I have no desire to spend 15 years in a small capsule, eat dried food, and drink filtered water reconstituted from piss. Not at my age. Not at any age. This country would lose its will 4 years in and cut funding forcing us to turn back.

Once you are off, I am not sure funding really matters... it's kinda of launch and your off on your own... apart from data, there's not much I can send you.

Quote: TheCesspit

Once you are off, I am not sure funding really matters... it's kinda of launch and your off on your own... apart from data, there's not much I can send you.

Ground control still needs to be staffed. But.....

Maybe if there would be two women for every man. Otherwise no too much struggle and too long to go to an uninhabitable planet. A world of scarcity doesn't matter if we had advanced space travel, so don't count on it in your lifetime.

Quote: Ayecarumba

What is your answer?

Yes. How often do you get the chance to make history?

Quote: Wizard

Yes. How often do you get the chance to make history?

You could spend the travel time plotting and arranging circumstances so that you could be the first one out the door... I would be tempted...

Everyone knows the first man on the Moon. Some know the second, but the third?

I would like to think that one day we will colonize Mars. We probably should become a multi-planet civilization, as Sagan and others have advocated, for our own good. Scientists appreciate more and more each day how dangerous a place the Universe is.

HOWEVER. I don't think manned missions to Mars should be the next step.

*We are so far from being able to make colonization viable at the moment that I think we should leave the idea of manned missions to at least 20 years in the future [maybe 100 yrs]. There really is no point in undertaking a venture with limited reward that now has such a high chance of getting the astronauts killed.

*To me, expanding the quest to find life out there is more practical and more interesting considering how little manned exploration will likely gain us on Mars. They are making a good case now that life might be found on various other moons. Let's go there with unmanned missions, is my vote.

Quote: the link

With abundant liquid water, and energy and chemistry provided by tidal heating, Europa could be the best place in the solar system to look for present day life beyond Earth.

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Jup_Europa

Quote: Ayecarumba

Everyone knows the first man on the Moon. Some know the second, but the third?

I was going to ask that.

Consider this. Only 12 men have walked on the Moon. I think the general populace would be hard pressed to name any but Armstrong and Aldrin. Even fewer travelled to the Moon twice (though none landed on it more than once). I can think of two. Would someone care to name one of them?