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Would You Live on Mars?

Started by L. Spiro Dec 3, 2012 at 12:26 AM 139 replies 32.7k views

Original Post

Dec 3, 2012 at 12:26 AM

Would you take a 1-way trip to Mars?
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/want-one-way-ticket-mars-dutch-company-looking-012824434.html

As for myself, I am ready to go.
Since I was a child I have never understood the concept of an attachment to a certain place or another.
Everyone gets attached to the place where they were born to some degree. But if that isn’t just a personal issue, then it means that place really is special, but that would mean every place on Earth is special, which means nowhere is special.
If it is just a personal issue each person has, then it has no meaning in the grand scheme of things.

I can’t explain it well, but getting attached to a place just because you grew up there simply doesn’t make sense. A place should be special because it really is special. This is why I chose to move around the world, live in multiple countries, and finally end up in Tokyo.

I was alone while living with my family in America. I was alone while surrounded by 700 schoolmates.
No matter who is with me, I am always alone, and I always will be.

My dream was always to move to Tokyo. At least that is what I told people in order not to be seen as crazy.
Tokyo was my dream as long as I was restricted to Earth, but secretly my bigger dream was to live on another planet. As long as I can bring cats.

Things are going well for me right now in Tokyo. I have a great job at a great company with a great salary. My acting job is picking up heavily—I have a major role and my biggest shoot yet starting this week. I just signed a contract to write a book for Addison-Wesley Professional.

But I would drop it all in a heartbeat for a chance to live in Mars.
Imagine being among the first settlers on a Mars colony. History books will note you as one of the founding fathers or mothers. To be one of the building blocks of a new civilization. I simply couldn’t imagine anything better.

How about you?
Would you go? Why or why not?

L. Spiro

slicer4ever

Dec 3, 2012 at 12:38 AM

hell to the yes i'd go, similar to you, i have no attachments keeping me here, I think the biggest point of going to another planet would be that it's a new frontier, personally i'd rather go star trek style and just fly through space on a space ship, but seeing as we are still several century's at the very least from achieving that, then i'd settle for another planet.

azonicrider

Dec 3, 2012 at 1:16 AM

Once its terraformed. I'm probably not a good candidate, considering that.

Oberon_Command

Dec 3, 2012 at 1:21 AM

But if that isn’t just a personal issue, then it means that place really is special, but that would mean every place on Earth is special, which means nowhere is special.

I could only agree with this reasoning if "every place on Earth" was all that constituted the universe.

If it is just a personal issue each person has, then it has no meaning in the grand scheme of things.
[/quote]

Nothing really has meaning "in the grand scheme of things," because meaning is something that we assign to things; it is not an inherent part of their being. I am therefore not sure I see this point as sufficient grounds for downplaying the importance of "personal issues."

A place should be special because it really is special.[/quote]

I was not aware that there was an objectively-correct definition of what constitutes being a "special" place.

Would you go? Why or why not?[/quote]

Yes. I like the idea of contributing to the taming of a world, of transforming it and making it my own.

KingofNoobs

Dec 3, 2012 at 2:00 AM

I think you would find that with no friends, limited or no family, no internet, no blue sky, no grass, no computers (maybe 1 for survival), no games, no outdoor activities, and no hope of procreation you would pretty much hate life.

L. Spiro

Dec 3, 2012 at 2:17 AM

They have Internet. Red skies are more exotic than blue skies. There will be partners for procreation (though no chance of any of them being active to me—I am quite picky), games to play, things to do online, etc.
I have been perfectly fine without grass, friends, and family this far. Moving to an exotic location would just make it easier.

L. Spiro

lride

Dec 3, 2012 at 2:45 AM

I have been perfectly fine without grass, friends, and family this far.

Maybe you haven't realized the importance of grass, friends, and family because you were so near to them.
I think people don't realize the importance of things until they lack them.

Hodgman

Dec 3, 2012 at 2:46 AM

After reading Philip K. Dick's stories that are set on Mars, I'd rather not be a colonist. Someone else can make the heroic sacrifice of giving up their life for mankind.

They have Internet

The WAN-link to the ISS is so poor that it's a big distortion to call even it "the Internet". The WAN link to Mars is far, far worse. Any site that you wanted to "browse", you'd have to issue a batch job to mirror it to a Mars-local server first, which could take days.

I have never understood the concept of an attachment to a certain place or another.[/quote]But the ultimate attachment that comes from a 1-way trip is ok?

way2lazy2care

Dec 3, 2012 at 2:57 AM

I wouldn't go to Mars because nothing about Mars appeals to me. If there were some other planet more like Earth, I'd probably be down though.

L. Spiro

Dec 3, 2012 at 3:14 AM

Maybe you haven't realized the importance of grass, friends, and family because you were so near to them.

I’m not near any of those things.
I am on the opposite side of the world from my friends and family, and I live in Tokyo where grass is a commodity.

Someone else can make the heroic sacrifice of giving up their life for mankind.

Okay, I’m on it!
Imagine getting to be the first person to die on Mars!!

L. Spiro

Radikalizm

Dec 3, 2012 at 3:24 AM

I think you'd have to be very stable psychologically to survive out there.
You'd be living with a relatively small and very slow growing group of people for the rest of your life on a planet completely devoid of any other life (as far as we know). Every time you want to leave your living quarters you have to take the necessary precautions so the hostile environment doesn't kill you, and believe me it can kill you quite easily in quite a lot of interesting ways.
On top of that, all communication with earth is heavily delayed, so you can forget about ever having a proper conversation with anyone you ever knew on earth ever again.

I can think of a lot more of these "reasons to go insane on mars", but I think you get the point.
If you believe you're able to cope with all these things, more power to you, but personally I really can't imagine my mental health surviving all too long out there.

theydidntnameme

Dec 3, 2012 at 3:32 AM

I would go in a heartbeat too. Living on the frontier is something I always wondered about when I read history books as a child. Everything around us on the planet has been explored... I want to go to a new place and discover new things. I was never one that was dependent on a lot of things in order to live, so I imagine I could live quite well in the limited environment (slow internet, no water etc lol).

slicer4ever

Dec 3, 2012 at 3:48 AM

out of curiousity, would anyone here saying no to mars, give thought to moving to the moon?, it'd wouldn't be unreasonable that you couldn't get back to earth within a short time frame, communication would be delayed by only a few seconds, rather than half an hour on mars.

Hodgman

Dec 3, 2012 at 3:53 AM

I'd move to one of these, after the asteroid-mining business booms so we can build them:
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/design/2012/01/nasas-groovy-concept-art-orbiting-cities-future/1085/
http://settlement.arc.nasa.gov/70sArt/art.html

IMO, colonising other planets should come after that, as we'd be in a much better position to start a moon/Mars base once an orbital economy is up and running

rscomposer

Dec 3, 2012 at 5:11 AM

I would totally go!

As soon as the demand for composers developed on the Red Planet, I would be able to get a real corner on the market.

But truly, yes, I would go because it would mean being part of one of the most important and ambitious steps humans have ever taken. It would be lonely and scary, and the scenery might get dull after a while, but the same could be said of Christopher Columbus' ride.

Cornstalks

Dec 3, 2012 at 5:22 AM

Nope. At least not in its current state. I would get soooo bored. It would be cool for the first bit, but... what then? Internet? It's a 30-minute ping on an already low bandwidth connection. I'd also probably get pretty lonely, even if there were some other people there. There wouldn't be enough diversity (in people) there for me. I already spend enough time being bored on earth where I've got a ton to do. I seriously don't think I'd handle a tiny living space, very little freedom (want to go outside? first put on this massive space suit; oh, and you only have so much oxygen), etc. very well. Heck, just the flight there would probably be the death of me.

However, I have made it a goal of mine to go to the moon before I die. But on a two-way ticket.

rscomposer

Dec 3, 2012 at 5:30 AM

But on a two-way ticket.

slicer4ever

Dec 3, 2012 at 5:48 AM

[quote name='Cornstalks' timestamp='1354512153' post='5006503']But on a two-way ticket.

This is an important point. The trip to Mars should not be a one-way thing. As I remember hearing, they were wanting to do it as a reality show, and the one-way thing was pure exploitation, in my opinion.

If we are to go to Mars, it should not be solely for the purpose of making a reality TV show about it.
[/quote]

you're forgetting about the shear amount of money required to do this, the only way it will get done, is by taking a step and doing it, and if that step requires essentially creating an truman show, well, it's a start.

the only possible other alternatives for generating the resources are either an extremely valuable/plentiful resource is discovered, and corporations want to mine it(such as Helium-3 on the moon), or over population/pollution forces us to leave or die, or lastly some really really rich people decide to say fuck it, let's go!.

KingofNoobs

Dec 3, 2012 at 7:33 AM

How long have you lived in Tokyo? I was in Japan for 4 years, and despite what you might want to think you still do live around "people " They also have their gardens.

Krohm

Dec 3, 2012 at 7:57 AM

I would have to say goodbye to a few very close friends. But I know they would be probably happier knowing I'm going for good.
I am not scared of manual labor and I've survived accidents with (previously believed to be) 100% mortality rate.
Given my skills, I believe I could be an excellent all-rounder. You really want to have me on one of those ships.
Planned departure?

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