... I went through a stage when I'd have considered taking that trip, but I recovered. It takes a very specific state of mind to make a decision like that. I hope if these people ever do go that they don't 'recover' before they die, it'd be a real hard place to have live with regrets.
I believe that's why up until fairly recently they chose astronauts from among military pilots, since they were already "pre-qualified". Even there, a lot of them scrubbed out of the program for physical or psychological reasons, and THAT was just for a couple of days in low orbit around the Earth.
Imagine the strength of the people chosen to go to Mars, knowing they won't be returning ever.
What I don't understand is the comment in the article that they're seeking only 4 people for the trip; I can't see that at being enough to actually colonize a planet. The skill-sets needed alone would be far in excess of what 4 people could possibly be expert in.
There's some great stuff on that site and the sad proof that what really drives the human race to 'reach for the stars' isn't so much the craving for
New Frontiers as for a new source of income. It's no coincidence that all the technology being developed revolves about mining ventures.
Those of us still kidding ourselves that space will be conquered for altruistic reasons without the prospect of there being a buck in it need to get a grip.
We may need room to expand due overbreeding this planet but those deep space colonies we fantasize about won't be socially balanced DNA survival capsules built by the UN. They'll be mining company worker's camps which damned well better be able to pay their way. .... or then again I could just have been reading too much sci-fi.
We are a race of miners - we sink oil wells willy-nilly, destroying our own habitat as we do so; we mine coal, killing our miners at an alarming rate; we mine for gold, silver, tin, copper, iron and dozens and dozens aof other substances that our "modern" society cannot do without. We mine the salt from the sea and the hydrogen from the air; we mine the talented among our population. Now we're even data-mining.
So it's no surprise to me that one of the first activities in space would involve ripping up the land, especially for profit. It's in our DNA.
Speaking of which... does anyone else sometimes experience the feeling when seeing this whizzbang space technology that we're looking into the past? That a lot of it is T Model Ford level and why aren't we just designing Ferraris already?
Too much expectation from too much sci-fi??
Hope someone understands what I mean when I offer this, 'state of the art' 1970s Lunokhod1.... why does this look like pure Steampunk to me?
Well, it's perspective. That Lunokhod1 is what, 40 years old? When I was a kid reading
Popular Science they were showing stuff like
this:
Almost 50 years later I laugh at what they considered "the future". I think perhaps you HAVE been watching too much Sci-Fi - you've been de-sensitized to reality.
layful:
