I want to get to Mars as much as the next space enthusiast, but just to do something to do it doesn’t strike me as very smart.
There’s a distressing contradiction between commonly held expectations and public enthusiasm for sending humans to Mars and the daunting constraints that oppose such a proposition. We know how to get into space. We reached the Moon nearly 40 years ago. But now, we hesitate to fully commit to the next big step, a human trip to Mars.
For a century, ideas about exploring the Red Planet have abounded, but even for our current spacefaring generation all these concepts remain impractical and unachievable. Nevertheless, there is one way that we might yet witness this feat. This essay describes that single option, a program concept I call the “Spirit of the Lone Eagle”.
True, we’d learn a lot from the effort. But I’d rather see such an effort be made towards a useful space station, or an operational Moon base (which is essentially the same thing).
Ditto – A well designed space station IS the best way to Mars and beyond.
Whoever goes on this mission would be the first person to ever need an iPod with 10,000-songs on it!
If you stay confined to a single planet you deserve what you get.
Send some Chinese dogs…
Wow. I’ve been saying this for years. You mean to tell me the commenters here don’t think that someone would volunteer to go on a one way trip to Mars and be the first one to walk on the planet. Heck, I’d do it if I thought I would actually get there and not die en route. We do need a more mature attitude towards space exploration. Space exploration can and will kill people but that isn’t a reason not to do it. Should we stop racing cars or climbing mountains. We’ve always taken risks and made sacrifices to explore and we should continue to do so.
I’ve got the answer…. Send Suri Cruise in a pod to mars. The tabloids will then fund the techonolgy to get there AND BACK so they can take pictures of the kid.
Lot of young dudes with no spirit of adventure — or balls, I guess. I’d volunteer in a heartbeat.
No matter, there will never be an American government with enough courage to even ask for such a volunteer.
Sounds like Capital Punishment to me. Who do I have to kill?
Oops, that’s another subject on this blog.
For me it isn’t the aspect of finding a volunteer, but the admission that we’re not up to the logistics and technology for a round trip. We could do far better than a suicide mission.
#2 – Anyway, it just sounds like a pleasant fantasy for the guy. The space program is in shambles, but more importantly, we need to realize that it’s fiction to think humans will travel the galaxy, and find a new home planet if things on Earth get unlivable.
When the earth shakes us off, that’s that. The dream ends.
–WKW
I wholeheartedly disagree.
I’m not one of these fruitbats who think UFOs abduct rednecks and mutilate cows. I don’t even believe we’ve ever been visited. But I do believe in numbers – and the numbers say there are billions upon billions of chances to have conditions right for life.
I’m sure most people agree – but also doubt we can get there. In my lifetime, we won’t… But the list of things humans have done that are supposed to have been impossible is long. The number of “facts” shattered by scientific advancement is a heady number indeed.
It won’t be what we imagine, with the Starship Enterprise zooming around and meeting new humanoids with new kinds of bones in their foreheads. I think it will be more like what Arthur Clarke envisioned in 3001 (the fourth and perhaps least read book in the series).
The point is there are millions of excuses given as to why we can’t break the speed of light, or teraform a planet, or design a real artificial intelligence. I don’t buy it. The only thing I think you can say with certainty is that when the speed of light is broken, it won’t be one of the naysayers who did it.
What we understand is nothing compared to what we don’t. Give it time. If humans get to space before some unforseen cataclysm occurs, then we’ll live there. And dare I say, we’ll be, as a species, immortal.
2: “Individual Americans aren’t averse to taking risk. Over the past 30 years at least 500 people have died sport diving in Florida’s underwater caves, yet this incredibly dangerous hobby remains popular.”
it’s one thing to take a calculated risk to do something you want to do, such as cave diving, skydiving, rock climbing, or even driving on a freeway.
It’s quite another to go to Mars (or, for that matter, cross Antarctica alone, on foot) when you know you don’t have the means to come back alive.
Wow…….I had to sit here and reread all the posts. I’m just jaw dropping amazed that out of 15 comments, only 3 and now 4 would go on this truely awesome adventure.
Maybe I shouldn’t have expected a bunch of people who think roughing it, is to go without the internet for more than 3 days, to think much of this idea.
I could care less about my words taking on more importance or my name ringing out across the world, I would do it on the hush hush if they offered. Throughout mans history we have done things just to see what it would be like, whats on the other side of that hill or river or ocean. The first guy to jump out of the trees and decide to take up living in a cave probably figured he wasn’t long for this world, but he HAD to do it. Most explorers knew that there was a very good possibility that they would never see their families or friends or home again, but they went anyway, they HAD to do it.
A space station or moon base would be cool, but this…..this is something really special. And those who think there wouldn’t be many to volunteer……your just plain daft. There would be probably hundreds of thousands if not more, young, old and in between that would give anything to be able to go.
I just lit up when I read this piece. I think he does sound a little to spacy about it, like believeing that the worlds people would stop fighting and be amazed and enthralled together…..now THATS science fiction. But his basic premise is good as far as I’m concerned.
They might want to be very careful who the first one up there is, because when they start sending up others to form the colony, the first guy may have immigration issues.
Just appearance of this idea testifies that NASA is not taking enough risks. We can have round-trip mission with today’s technology (and innovations during the project). It would even be safer than the Moon missions. However it wouldn’t be as safe as the present day NASA regulations. Some attempts may end in lost life. What is not obvious to NASA management is that :
a) Such mission would be welcomed by the public and participants, as long as risks were presented in advance (both to the public and participants).
b) Taking these risks and going through the mission would bring about innovations and technology that would allow us easier “mundane” missions and applications as new space station and Moon bases.
For original poster and #1 comment: what you propose is equivalent to the Spanish royalty saying to Columbus, “no, that is too dangerous, lets first develop better trade routes with Africa, which is just over there… And some trading posts in Algeirs and Morocco. Not risky and sure profits…”
#17 agreed..
-There are people strapping high explosives to themselves and detonating it right now for lesser causes..
#15
It’s quite another to go to Mars (or, for that matter, cross Antarctica alone, on foot) when you know you don’t have the means to come back alive.
-I’d rather die (gonna anyways) trying to go to mars than trying to go to atarctica.. apples and oranges..
not alot of bits of foam killing people in antarica
and if i have to die alone in a spaceship on my way to mars or beyond.. great.. it’s the life i choose
The only reason we even need to consider such a thing is because we don’t want to fund a real effort.
Yes, there are noble/crazy people who would gladly take a one-way trip to immortality. But this concept has nothing to do with bravery and everything to do with accepting that the only kind of exploration we can get away with is a suicide mission.
If they discovered something worth a lot of money on Mars, there’d be a base on the planet before you could spit.
This idea is nothing more than ritual human sacrifice. It’s the same concept as “take the virgina and stick her up on the volcano to die”. And what exactly would be the payoff of such a mission. We would be able to watch it on TV. We would be killing a person for a reality show, just like the Romans watching fights to the death. Either way, it’s despicable.
How about those criminals who were sentenced to death.. instead of watching them die in a lethal injection or electric chair, put them on a mission to Mars.. at least their death will be an unforgettable experience and they will become famous.. just my opinion.. any comments?? 🙂
#20…Smartalix….yep and no……your right about the money making on Mars thing.
And your right about not wanting to make the effort to do it right.
But I disagree that those who would volunteer to go would be doing it because they admit we can’t do it except as a suicide mission. I would hope that my being there would give someone the incentive to come up with the answers to how to allow me 3 weeks vacation on Earth.
24 A completely hypothetical, never-will-even-enter-the-discussion-stages adventure, of course.
Agreed.
Forward, in his work of fiction, had a select team of scientists volunteering for a one-way trip that offered them a lifetime filled with opportunities for research & exploration – unlike Mr. McLane’s call for an expensive remake of Robinson Crusoe on Mars…
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue150/classic.html
The only problem is, how much life support for the period of time on Mars will they be able to fund in this scenario. Such a mission would end shortly after the guy or gal plants a flag and sets up a couple of automated experiments.
If the mission is really ambitious, they may give the astronaut a plastic inflatable greenhouse and a packet of seeds.
Give the technical problems to any of the more or less competent RV manufacturers, tell’em we need a vehicle that can carry a family of four to the outer planets and back, with landings on at least two extra-terrestrial bodies, and in a few years we’ll have space travel.
No problem.
#16 – #
14. Your brilliant use of the word “Fruitbat” demanded I read your entire post.
Comment by William K. Wolfrum — 8/4/2006 @ 5:22 pm
Thanks!!
)()()(blush)()()(
That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me 🙂
If we can get a DECENT space station up, and make a SPACE ONLY ships, we could GET moving on our space exploration.
BUT we wont/cant…
THIs has to be a WHOLE Earth project, DONE at a reasonable price.
> If the mission is really ambitious, they may give the
> astronaut a plastic inflatable greenhouse and a packet of
> seeds.
First, that would have to be an awfully big greenhouse. They have yet to produce a viable long term self contained biosphere. The Biosphere 2 experiment in Arizona was the biggest attempt and it failed. Second, one of the biggest obstacles is the radition. By the time the astronaut landed he/she would have enough radiation exposure to seal their fate.
BUT,
If we made a ship in SPACE, from a space station, DESIGNED ONLY for space travel.
Dont care if its ALL ceramic. It has a better chance then a Earth bound ship.
It would be alot of work.
Making a Station on the moon, would be a viable alternative IF we can find the metals and processing materials.
It’s just amazing to me the sheer number of hot heads willing to go on this one-way trip…
Note to commercial space companies: there’s money here!
Start planning Mars route – one way.
Human beings are fragile creatures that require a lot of care to keep alive, and that kind of care is just not available on every third star. To make the jump that going to Mars is the same as going to the stars and that the difference between the two is how much gas you put in the tank is taking a challenge of obscenely huge proportions and boiling it down to “Gee, if we all just pull together we can do anything” mentality.
The other trick is that a ship BUILT in space could also use Fuels we cant distill READILY on earth.
Methane Liquified, and expanded and exploded…