© NASAEarth and Mars.
For anyone who's ever felt the urge to get away from it all, Dirk Schulze-Makuch and Paul Davies have a proposal: a one-way ticket to Mars with no possibility of return.
You and a stranger would board a spacecraft and travel for six months - absorbing levels of radiation so high that your reproductive organs would be destroyed - before arriving at your new planet. There you would live in an ice cave, or perhaps inside a biosphere adjoining a cave, for the rest of your life (which, incidentally, would be 20 years or less). Two other Earth ex-pats would arrive in their own craft, and together the four of you would prepare a home for 150 more people, most of whom would arrive decades after your death.
Sound enticing? It does to many people, say Mr. Davies, of Arizona State University, and Mr. Schulze-Makuch, of Washington State University.
The two scientists lay out their plan in a paper titled "To Boldly Go: A One-Way Human Mission to Mars," in the October-November issue of the Journal of Cosmology.
"A human mission to Mars is technologically feasible," the men write, "but hugely expensive."
They say that the price tag of such an undertaking could be slashed by as much as 80 percent by doing away with the hassle of worrying about getting the astronauts back to Earth. Drastically reducing the cost could make the colonization of Mars a near-term possibility.
"We are a vulnerable species living in a part of the galaxy where cosmic events such as major asteroid and comet impacts and supernova explosions pose a significant threat to life on Earth, especially to human life," the scientists write. "Global pandemics, nuclear or biological warfare, runaway global warming, sudden ecological collapse and supervolcanoes" threaten the existence of humankind.
"Colonization of other worlds is a must if the human species is to survive for the long term," they write.
Settlements on Earth's moon or on asteroids could also be feasible, the scientists say, but the Red Planet is the best candidate for colonization. It is relatively close to Earth and it may have ice caves, which could supply the colonists with water and oxygen.
After pitching their proposal in lectures and at conferences, Mr. Davies and Mr. Schulze-Makuc say they have found no shortage of people who say they would volunteer for a one-way mission, "both for reasons of scientific curiosity and in a spirit of adventure and human destiny."
The Martian colonists "would remain in constant contact with Earth via normal channels such as email, radio and video links," the scientists say, so you could stay in touch with the relatives, check Facebook, and yes, read Tweed.
So what about it? Would you volunteer? Why or why not? If not, is there someone else you'd like to send to Mars? Let us know in the comments below.
There was a similar article on Space.com but in this other article, they compared a one-way trip to Mars to the original colonists leaving Europe to come to the "new" world. Yes, a one way trip to Mars would be exactly like the early explorers.
Um, except:
1) there is no breathable atmosphere on Mars, so if you are "outside" without a high tech space suit, you would die in seconds.
2) there is no readily available supply of water. Sure, there is water to be had, given a extremely high technological extraction solution, but its not like you get down on your knees and drink from a stream.
3) there is no food source native to Mars (at least that we know of), and there is no assurance that even if we find something that it is compatible with our nutritional needs. This means that a high tech solution to growing food would be required.
4) its extremely cold, so much so that it makes Antarctica in winter (only recently occupied) seem downright balmy. This would require a high tech environmental solution to create the necessary temperature and humidity for survival.
5) because of #1, there is a tremendously high level of radiation, which would be quickly deadly to a human without (wait for it...) a high tech solution.
and last but not least:
6) there are no native "savages" (again, that we know of) from which to steal the planet.