Would you take a Free Ticket to (Planet) Mars...but no return flight?

[InstinctX]

I was bummed about hearing news that a Dutch-company was offering free tickets to Mars and registration had closed (anyone could apply) ... but I didn't feel bad since it's ONE-WAY!

They just chose their 100 finalists...with the field then narrowing down to the "lucky" 4 -- target departure date is sometime 2024.

(From Wash Post) "The name of the organization that could be the first to put humans on the Red Planet is Mars One. “One,” as in, yes, one-way. It will launch people into space, land them on Mars and attempt to keep them alive for the length of their natural lives — but it won’t be bringing them back.

One-way is cheaper, according to the entrepreneur, physicist and physician masterminding the Mars One project. One-way is more technologically feasible. One-way, they believe, can happen in the year 2024.

NASA has no public plans to attempt a human landing on Mars until the 2030s, and even then, it will certainly be NASA astronauts who take the trip."

http://www.newsweek.com/final-100-candidates-selected-one-way-trip-mars-307048

Would you have applied for this free one-way trip? (For me, I would offer to pay for the return flight back to Earth ... does anyone know how many miles are needed for a reward flight from Mars to Earth (economy is fine for me)?)

 

[SomeRandomGuy]

200,000 people signed up to leave Earth to die in a freezing desolate place with no Internet and terrible food far from all their family. They could just move to the Yukon so they could come back when they realize the horror of what they signed up for, though it's still a lot more hospitable than Mars.

 

[MickiSue]

Let me guess: they'll pick two women and two men, who they really really hope will be hetero and compatible.

 

[InstinctX]

Updated with a poll ....

 

[SomeRandomGuy]

I voted "No, I love my family too much" though it's really more of a "I wouldn't wish that on anyone."

 

[goals^n^dreams]

I have heard this news on TV. I am so confused why people want to go to MAR and no return flight. Is it a joke?

 

[Voyaging Doc]

I didn't vote because there's no option for "No, I can't MS on mars and haven't been able to burn through my miles." Why is family the only concern?

 

[InstinctX]

Sadly no, it's allegedly real ... mars-one(.)com. I think if this is successful, they may plan to go to Uranus.

Until they have a shopping mall, internet access, cable TV and other amenities, I'll pass. And what if you find out you can't stand the other 3 people? Plus I didn't realize how COLD Mars is (it gets barely above 32 degrees F)

I found this one article, in which the organizer of this mission compared it to the Pilgrims on the Mayflower... I think it's a bit different, worse case, a Pilgrim could find a way back across the pond.

"Mars One is, “not a death mission, it’s an exploration mission. These people are going to live.” He also compared the mission both to those who first emmigrated to America - “That was a one way ticket on a boat, they weren’t preparing to return to Europe - and also to the risks of climbing mountains: “The risk will be between climbing Mount Everest, where the fatality rate is 2.5% and climbing K2 which 25% of people don’t come back alive from. Somewhere in between those two will be our human mission to Mars.”​

 

[InstinctX]

I didn't vote because there's no option for "No, I can't MS on mars and haven't been able to burn through my miles." Why is family the only concern?

Wanted to be different. Obviously majority of us would NOT want this free flight. So wanted to have a "fun" question...