Category Archives: Mars to Stay

NASA Astronaut Dr. Rick Linnehan: Mars to Stay

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Linnehan: I’d love to be one of the first to go to Mars. I’d be first in line, even if it was a one-way trip, I’d sign up. And I know there’re a lot of people like that out there – the Mars One Project and otherwise. And I think that it will take that kind of passion and interest to make that happen.

David Livingston: So you would sign up for a one way trip?

Linnehan: Oh yeah, no question. -I’m not saying the one way trip would end right away but I mean people at some point are going to have to colonize. And you know, the first people up there aren’t probably coming back. So, you know, if you want – if you want to be in on the early race so to speak – and be the people who go up there and try to make something of a colony, you’re gonna be up there probably for your duration.

David Livingston: It would be quite an adventure to say the least.

The Space Show, 8-22-14

Gwynnagain: “Our Focus is Mars”

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“Our focus is Mars. You know, getting back to the moon will be really hard. And we’re afraid that, if we focus as a nation on getting back to the moon – when we should be focused on doing somewhere beyond where we’ve gone before – that, you end up spending so much money on that hard problem, that, you severely delay solving what we consider should be the focus of the root of the problem we should be looking at. And that is getting to Mars. So, we consider it [the moon] more of a distraction if we’re talking about a national program.”

Gwynne Shotwell is the President and Chief Operating Officer of SpaceX
http://www.thespaceshow.com/detail.asp?q=2212

Bob Zubrin on ‘Mars to Stay’ at the 2013 International Mars Society Convention

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“The idea of a one way mission, that, you know, you go to Mars, spend two years there, then have a suicide pill – or you go there at age 65 live for twenty years and then check out – no. That is not attractive. But what is very attractive is the idea of the “Normandy Beach Approach” – which is, you go to Mars, one way, not with the intent of dying there – but with the intent of living there. You take the beach. You send, you send people there not with the intent of abandoning there but with the intent of joining them there with more people more equipment more supplies more of everything. You back them up and you take the planet. And, um, that’s the proper concept for a one way mission – and if you’re prepared to do that, then that is the most efficient mission by far.”

http://new.livestream.com/accounts/4950775/events/2308259

Thoughtful Interview of Planetary Resource’s Eric Anderson in The Atlantic

“Eric Anderson [Planetary Resources]: In the next generation or two—say the next 30 to 60 years—there will be an irreversible human migration to a permanent space colony. Some people will tell you that this new colony will be on the moon, or an asteroid—in my opinion asteroids are a great place to go, but mostly for mining. I think the location is likely to be Mars. This Mars colony will start off with a few thousand people, and then it may grow over 100 years to a few million people, but it will be there permanently. That should be really exciting, to be alive during that stage of humanity’s history.”
“In 10 years or so, what we’d really like to do is get robotic exploration of space in line with Moore’s Law [the tech-world maxim that the price for computing power falls by half every 18 months]. Remember, asteroid mining doesn’t involve people. We want to transition space exploration from a linear technology into an exponential one, and create an industry that can flourish off of exponential technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning.”
“It will be possible to know more about an ore body that’s 10 million miles away from us in space than it would be to know about an ore body 10 miles below the Earth’s surface.”

Peter Diamandis on Mars to Stay

“I think privately funded missions are the only way to go to Mars with humans because I think the best way to go is on “one-way” colonization flights and no government will likely sanction such a risk. The timing for this could well be within the next 20 years. It will fall within the hands of a small group of tech billionaires who view such missions as the way to leave their mark on humanity.”

“The cost, complexity and risk of round trip missions is too high. I also am concerned that they typically result in flag-and-footprint missions which is what happened with Apollo. Government space mission budgets always get cut and compromised in the long run – it’s just the nature of the beast – and the science and meaningful long-term infrastructure is what gets cut out. With a one-way mission, you have to make sure you have the long-term infrastructure in place.”

“A private Mars mission is likely a five to ten billion endeavor and you won’t see multiple teams ever raising this level. If we ever re-invent launch technology to reduce the cost by 100-fold, then I think a “humans to Mars prize” would make a lot of sense.”

“I’m a big fan of heading to the asteroids first. In this light, I’d be very interested in a human outpost on Phobos before heading to the Martian surface. I do think this type of a human mission is within the scope, cost, and risk of governments.”

Come on, Get Happy!! (How to Portray Martian Settlement)

Life on Mars will be FUN!  We will have 24/7 wall-sized Skype murals with permanently open delayed stream of whatever you want to see on Earth (if that is an issue).

Please…if you advocate Mars settlement it would be helpful not to emphasize actually surmountable challenges. Phrases such as these pollute the public’s imagination:

“I envision life on Mars to be…frightening, lonely, quite cramped”

“It’s going to be a very long period of isolation and confinement”

“After the excitement of blast-off, and after the initial landing on Mars, it will be very difficult to avoid depression. After all, one is breaking one’s connections with family, friends, and all things familiar”

“Each day will be pretty much like the rest. The environment, once the novelty wears off, is likely to be deadly boring. Despite being well prepared and fully equipped there are certain to be unanticipated problems that cannot be remedied. One by one the crew will get old, sick, and die-off.”

“I do very well with solitude.”

We must make this negative portrayal of Martian settlement incomprehensible.  As strange as if someone were to suggest standing under Earth’s blue skies would lead to feelings of paralysis, suicide, or aesthetic bias toward non-photo blue. (In other words, ridiculous.)

The story of Mars will not be one of danger.  It will not be written by timid academics. The question frightened armchair astronauts should be asked is, “How often does your mom really want to Skype with you — on Earth??”

Humans on Mars will paint, play guitar, raise children, plant flowers, and have vibrant loving families. There is nothing solitary or depressing about the place.

(And they will have great relationships with their moms.)

Ridiculous, embarrassing article from which the quotes above were taken:
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/01/10/space-volunteer-way-mission-mars/#ixzz1jLhRlYvW

Paul Davies Plenary Address on ‘Mars to Stay’ One Way Mission at Annual International Mars Society Conference

Professor Paul Davies will give a plenary address to the opening session of the 14th Annual International Mars Society Convention, which will be held on August 4-7, 2011 at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Dallas, Texas.

A prominent spokesman for the concept of a one-way mission to Mars, Prof. Davies is a world renowned physicist, writer and broadcaster. In addition to giving a plenary talk at the Mars Society convention’s opening session on August 4th, Prof. Davies will also participate in a special panel discussion on the topic of a possible one-way mission to Mars.