While the incredibly odd conspiracy theorist might still believe that man never made it to the Moon, scientists are predicting that we might be able to send people to Mars in as little as twenty years. Because of a number of complicated factors involving the high cost of such an adventure, any ideas of a trip to Mars have been thus far postponed. However, a new idea is being floated around that would solve many of the problems with a mission—sending astronauts to Mars with a one-way ticket only.
(Click HERE to read my colleague's November article about this topic, complete with a video clip from no less than Keith Olbermann himself.)
Sending astronauts to Mars without a return trip would cut down fuel costs and might make it possible for the dream of men walking on Mars possible in the near future. The astronauts would have the double-duty of being astronauts and space settlers.
When the article introducing the unusual idea in The Journal of Cosmology was first published as an article, the editors received as many as five hundred responses from “volunteers” eager for the opportunity to be colonists on the red planet. Because the response was so huge, The Journal of Cosmology is now actively recruiting volunteers for the “mission” itself. While a majority of the responses they’ve received have been serious, there have been a few joke responses as well. A few female respondents offered to send their husbands on the unusual mission.
“The one-way mission proposal, titled "To Boldly Go: A One-Way Human Mission to Mars," is part of a book published by the journal that combines the work of more than 70 NASA scientists. "The Human Mission to Mars: Colonizing the Red Planet" is billed as a step-by-step "how-to" series on going to Mars.”
The authors of the paper are not thinking of a large-scale mission; instead, they are envisioning sending only four astronauts to the planet. In addition, they are claiming that the mission would not be a “suicide mission”, but rather a mission to Mars and an opportunity to “colonize” the planet. Once there, the astronauts/Mars colonizers would attempt to gather or harvest their own food, but would receive supplies from Earth in the interim. The NASA scientists hope that eventually the settlers would be able to become self-sufficient on Mars.