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Scientists propose one-way trips to Mars


Booster4324

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

 

Well, I would have thrown them a couple 10 Billion but not if they're going to call me crazy before they even ask.

 

 

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 are basing their research on what happens in movies? In that case why don't they just use telepathy to get to Mars like Dr. New York did?

 

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.

 

You don't need space travel for that.

Edited by ieatcrayonz
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That was actually suggested for the moon landing: send one guy in a capsule on a one-way trip, with enough supplies to keep him alive until they figured out how to get him back. :blink: That always sounded a little open-ended to me.

 

 

They argue that it would be little different from early settlers to North America, who left Europe with little expectation of return.

 

Except that North America has things like food, water, air...otherwise, no different, yes. :wallbash:

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That was actually suggested for the moon landing: send one guy in a capsule on a one-way trip, with enough supplies to keep him alive until they figured out how to get him back. :blink: That always sounded a little open-ended to me.

 

 

Speaking of a one-way moon landing...

 

http://gawker.com/5369364/william-safires-finest-speech

 

That is the speech prepared for Nixon to read to the country if something had happened to strand the American Astronauts on the Moon. Pretty moving to imagine.

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nah...send a few death row inmates

 

You don't want to trust them with anything important though. Maybe you get someone with a year to live, they make the 6 month trip, land, plug a few things in and die. But you've got some groundwork laid for the next set of visits.

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You don't want to trust them with anything important though. Maybe you get someone with a year to live, they make the 6 month trip, land, plug a few things in and die. But you've got some groundwork laid for the next set of visits.

I was thinking send up 3 or 4, but only enough food for 1. It would be a pay per view bonanza.

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I got to this part and stopped reading:

 

 

"The technology already exists, or is within easy reach, they wrote. By not taking the extra fuel and provisions necessary for a return trip to Earth, the mission could cut costs by 80 percent"

 

Christ! This is why we are never going outside LEO again, because people are bound and determined to have to build a ginormous space cruiser to go anywhere. We absolutely do NOT need to take everyting along with us for that trip.

 

Mars has abundant CO2 in the atmosphere, the best approach is to launch an ERV (Earth Return Vehicle) with a small hydrogen supply, and let it produce methane-oxygen for fuel on Mars. Before anyone blasts off from Earth, they would have a fully fueled craft ready to go...

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Speaking of a one-way moon landing...

 

http://gawker.com/5369364/william-safires-finest-speech

 

That is the speech prepared for Nixon to read to the country if something had happened to strand the American Astronauts on the Moon. Pretty moving to imagine.

 

 

I figured Nixon would just blame the entire thing on JFK.

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