Colonizing Mars — A One-Way Trip To The Red Planet
The Netherlands-based nonprofit company Mars One is looking for people to help colonize and pave the way for future settlement on the planet Mars.
The catch? It’s being planned as a one-way trip.
A few days ago Mars One released its basic requirements for future astronauts heading to Mars. The requirements don’t seem to be too strenuous. You have to be at least eighteen years old, intelligent, and in good physical and mental health. You don’t need to be the top of your class in test pilot school like the old days of NASA.
And of course, I’m sure you need all of your affairs settled here on Earth before blasting off to Mars. After all, you’re never going to see any of your family and friends ever again. You’ll probably be able to send and receive video messages to and from the Red Planet, but that’s about it.
I’ve heard of this one-way-trip concept discussed for a while now when it comes to future space exploration. The problem is that when you consider the extreme distances, travel time measured in years, and costs that will exceed billions of dollars, it’s hard to convince governments to send astronauts outside of the Earth’s orbit. Through in the development of future spacecraft plus all of the necessary testing and re-testing to make sure it’s as safe as possible.
That’s just getting the astronauts and equipment safely TO the destination. Bringing them home safely is another task and significant expense.
But what if you found volunteers who would make the one-way voyage knowing full well that they’ll most likely never return to Earth? Think of all the work and research those volunteer astronauts could accomplish as long as they keep receiving resupply ships along with fellow colonists. We’re talking about leaps and bounds of advances without worrying about bringing the astronauts back home.
It sounds cruel but it’s just part of the exploration and colonization process. Plus, is it really that cruel if you have an all-voluneteer crew?
Remember that one-way trips for colonists were common back in the 1500s and 1600s. People boarded sailing ships with their family and whatever they could carry, voyaging to a new land where they would settle and build a community. For the vast majority of them it was a one-way trip that would take over a month to complete.
It’s surprising how much more motivated people become when it comes to surviving when your life literally depends on it. That’s how it was for many of the colonists from past generations. They would commonly arrive in an open area and have to immediately hunt for food, cultivate the land, and build their homes and community structures. This is all while fighting diseases, accidents and injuries, and sometimes even attacks from natives.
Mars One hopes to have astronauts begin arriving on Mars by 2023. Robotic cargo missions could begin launching for Mars as early as 2016. I’d be thrilled to see rockets launching for Mars in three years, carrying cargo and supplies that would help the astronaut pioneers. We’re talking about real space exploration and future colonization here, and not just another mission to the ISS. This is the stuff that Hollywood has been making movies about since the 1950s. It’s the dawn of a new era of space flight and exploration.
This is exciting seeing a company actively pushing for such a reachable goal. Through the recent rocket advances through SpaceX, space flight to Mars is going to be a very real possibility in the near future.
It’s going to be very interesting watching the progress of Mars One and ultimately the astronaut selection and training process.
GO MARS ONE!
GO SPACEX!