Who Will Go to and Will They Return?

There is a lot of discussion at the moment about the future of human space travel; where will we go, and what will we do. Some don’t want us to go to Mars, others want us going to asteroids, and others want us going back to the Moon.

There are those who believe that going to the Moon is a back step, seeing as we’ve already done that. We need to move on. Move on to the next target; whether that be an asteroid or Mars.

So it isn’t surprising, really, that over the past month the idea of a new sort of mission to has been arisen; a mission that won’t have to worry about a return voyage.

Two similar ideas have meshed, at Universe Today, by way of LiveScience.com. First off, came Jim McLane’s proposal, that a one-man, one-way mission to be the plan for humanity’s first steps on Mars. “When we eliminate the need to launch off Mars, we remove the mission’s most daunting obstacle," said McLane.

The NASA veteran of 21 years found his idea spawn from his perception of Russian cosmonaut’s. “I noticed the cosmonaut seemed to be a slightly different type of person than the American astronaut," McLane said. “Cosmonauts are primarily pilots, and like test pilots, they are very focused on getting the job done. The current American astronauts are picked for things such as their speaking ability and social skills, and most of them have advanced degrees. But the cosmonaut struck me as an adventurous, get-things-done-type person, like our original astronauts back in the 1960’s."

On a completely different channel, SFC William H. Ruth of the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division stationed somewhere in Afghanistan, saw a post on LiveScience.com about Professor Stephen Hawking’s belief in extraterrestrial life.

He wrote in to Space.com’s senior editor Tariq Malik, and made an eerily familiar suggestion:
Send battle-hardened, strong-minded soldiers and marines on the long trips into space. We are conditioned to live with the bare minimal (of) life’s necessities and are trained to be prepared for … the worst conditions that any environment could throw at us.

Hell, me and my men will go, set up a colony somewhere and await colonists to arrive.

Bringing this all together is an article by Nancy Atkinson, from Universe Today, who wrote the original article about Jim McLane’s idea. She saw the Science.com article which quoted Ruth, and contacted him herself, notifying him of McLane’s idea.

Ruth is remarkably energized about the possibility of being relocated to an entirely different planet, with no plan of evacuation. "I fully agree with NASA and others that it is completely dangerous and potentially deadly for anyone who sets out on this voyage," he said in response to Atkinson’s queries. "Who else has the mentality to volunteer to face certain danger and possibly death, thousands of miles away from their homes? I could think of a few hundred thousand that do it every day across this planet."

This could very well be the answer that a lot of politicians, scientists and bureaucrats have been looking for. A method to take us to Mars, even colonize Mars, without the added expense – which, sadly, is more often than not the straw that breaks the camel’s back for adventures like these – of returning their astronauts home again.

Not a suicide mission, but a mission of extended exploration. It’s a novel concept, and give me a few hundred books to take with me, and I’ll go too!

Posted by Josh Hill

Source links:

Article 1 - http://www.universetoday.com/2008/03/04/a-one-way-one-person-mission-to-mars/

Article2 http://www.livescience.com/blogs/2008/04/25/afghanistan-heroes-offer-to-colonize-moon-mars-and-beyond/

Article 3 - http://www.universetoday.com/2008/05/26/one-way-mission-to-mars-us-soldiers-will-go/

Comments

[Daniel]

What kind of books would you take? Books about Science or books about God?

Please, no novels set on Earth or you might get seriously homesick!

[Dave]

Whether it's Mars or another star, sooner or later there will be one way trips to establish a foothold on new horizons. Mankind has to quit with the mothering of it's sons and daughters and let them go explore.

Regards
Dave

[Yordan Yanakiev]

Well
Comonauts is not a different type space explorers, Slavians ( Russians, Bulgarians and Serbians ) are people that whole life is like surviving.
They do things with idea that they must survive, and what they do it - they do it like it must survive trought generations with idea that their kids to use it and have one less thing to worry about.
That's why slavian cosmonauts do not looks very heroic , do not do things much beuty, but thay do the things with main idea to be hard as rock trought generations.

If someone say - let's go to Mars ... oki - they will go , but with main idea that is much possible that they will never return.
They will be happy as every explorer will be, but will be prepared for living as long as they can in Marsian environment, so each minute they woud think how to spend one or another resource , to have as much as can if something goes wrongs and there is no returning.

Anyway
- people who come after first Marsian explorers must have a base to start from, so - here some ideas , that do not looks very bad :

There shoud be 2 rockets to mars launched with 6 hours difference.
- 1st rocked carring 4 Explorers, and supplies like food, medical equipment, and 2nd rocket carring equoment needed for building under earth base, recicling euipment, plant seeds, bacteries, solar panels, vehicle, water filter, tools and fuel.

I choose 4 explorers, becouse 3 is too tight colective, and they easy will start to bore each other to death, also too small number for extreme conditions.
I choose 2 rockets becouse they can carry much more usable weight, and theyr shells must be used for setting up 1st mars base.

[jer35mx]

As a joke, but the truth, this article bring the image of the cosmonaut in the Armaggedon movie punching the engines to start the ship. On other tought I think they described the west explorers from the 19th century in the States.

[Seymour]

In the European era , in Holland I think, sailors/explorers attended their own funeral prior to embarking on their voyage into the unknown, recognizing the dangers involved.
The Vikings were multi experienced as explorers/soldiers/farmers and took the risk to travel to the new frontier in Greenland Newoundland , Iceland and maybe even New England and other places long before Columbus.
The Chinese also explored the world and may have been in America.
Many Apollo ,Mercury ,Gemini Astronauts who went to Space were military pilots with combat experience in the Korean War including Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin the first to go to the Moonand , the Mercury astronaut John Glenn and others as well.
The difference is they intended to return to the Earth.
Some of the Vikings may have returned to Europe but many were farmers and stayed whenever possible.
There are Seniors , some of whom have told me personally , that will volunteer for a on way trip to MARS given the opportunity.
But saying and doing is another matter.
In America whole families packed up and went West facing many dangers but some of them felt they had nothing to lose and farm land and wealth to gain.
If Mars had something to gain they would go there .
It seems to me that we are very close to the point were people will break the barrier in their minds of "Mars is just too Risky".
Already we have a photo of a space craft and parachute landing on Mars with a flawless journey from liftoff to landing.
The first human landing on Mars could take place in 2015 and a base established in 2025 leading to a colony of 50 people by 2035. A combined effort by USA , ESA , Russia , India , Japan and China could do it even sooner.
Commercialization of Space would accelerate the venture , especially if there were one way trip volunteers.
But if we go to the Moon first we may never go to Mars.

[Yordan Yanakiev]

The idea of building Moon base is like building a high jump point.
The Moon have almost none gravity , so shuttles will escape it without troubles, and no fuel will be wasted like it must on Earth.
So - Earth send Fuel ships to Moon base, there shuttles go to load fuel, on the same time , they can carry trailer to Mars.
So here is scenario :

1 : We got one big Fuel Station on Moon.
2 : We build a hudge trailers convoy that wait on orbit around the Earth.
3 : We send a shuttle that play like vehicle for the Trailers to fuel on Moon.
4 : Shuttle catch the waiting convoy and start long trip to Mars.
5 : Shuttle disspack the trailers convoy on Mars orbit, and back to Moon base for next refuel and so on ..

On the moon base could be build hudge solar cells that can power shuttles and convoy trailers.
This coud be called "space train" :)
Mars will need alot of resources to start a colony - so - only such train coud do the job fast as possible.

[jesse]

I will go to Mars. If it is 100% chance of death I would still be more than happy to go. The experience would be immaculate.