Mars One
A company called Mars One is planning a one-way trip to the planet of war. Fox News, always quick to pick up on an opportunity for sensationalism, has predictably labeled it a "suicide mission."
In fact, this is the only way to do it. Colonization doesn't come with a return ticket. That's the whole point: you succeed or you die. Unfortunately, as long as escaping our own gravity well remains prohibitively expensive, this sort of thing will only happen in fits and starts. Once the tech exists (e.g. - a space elevator) for cheap ascent to orbit -- and it will, probably within fifty years -- there will be a land rush that'll make American expansionism of the 19th century seem tame by comparison.
Such opportunities invariably attract the hardiest and most adventurous among humans -- who, by the way, do not work for NASA. I once watched the NASA channel back in the 90s as they reeled out 100 meters of cable from the cargo bay of the SpaceBus; I fell asleep after four hours. I think they had reached 22 meters by that point. Excessive caution is all fine-and-good for technocrats and meticulous scientists, but it will never conquer new worlds. Remember that most of the western United States was founded by private investment companies and iconoclastic individualists. The government just plopped down a few forts when the injuns became too quarrelsome in certain areas.
I tend to think these "Mars One" folks and other such types of intrepid personalities will probably be like the Vikings who first discovered North America: their "colonies" failed, leaving behind only mouldering heaps of earth and a few coins. They simply didn't have the technology or agricultural knowledge to succeed. But a few hundred years later, the plucky religious outcasts of Europe made a go of it, as they brought their crops and animals with them. When they landed, it wasn't to search for plunder, it was to carve out a life in the New World.
Fair warning to any native Martians who may be skulking about: those shiny carbon-fiber beads aren't really all that valuable. And don't drink the firewater.
In fact, this is the only way to do it. Colonization doesn't come with a return ticket. That's the whole point: you succeed or you die. Unfortunately, as long as escaping our own gravity well remains prohibitively expensive, this sort of thing will only happen in fits and starts. Once the tech exists (e.g. - a space elevator) for cheap ascent to orbit -- and it will, probably within fifty years -- there will be a land rush that'll make American expansionism of the 19th century seem tame by comparison.
Such opportunities invariably attract the hardiest and most adventurous among humans -- who, by the way, do not work for NASA. I once watched the NASA channel back in the 90s as they reeled out 100 meters of cable from the cargo bay of the SpaceBus; I fell asleep after four hours. I think they had reached 22 meters by that point. Excessive caution is all fine-and-good for technocrats and meticulous scientists, but it will never conquer new worlds. Remember that most of the western United States was founded by private investment companies and iconoclastic individualists. The government just plopped down a few forts when the injuns became too quarrelsome in certain areas.
I tend to think these "Mars One" folks and other such types of intrepid personalities will probably be like the Vikings who first discovered North America: their "colonies" failed, leaving behind only mouldering heaps of earth and a few coins. They simply didn't have the technology or agricultural knowledge to succeed. But a few hundred years later, the plucky religious outcasts of Europe made a go of it, as they brought their crops and animals with them. When they landed, it wasn't to search for plunder, it was to carve out a life in the New World.
Fair warning to any native Martians who may be skulking about: those shiny carbon-fiber beads aren't really all that valuable. And don't drink the firewater.
posted by Jar(egg)head at 14:42
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