Could you leave Earth forever?

[AyumiAmakusa]

So I just read about NASA planning to send people to Mars for 'free' but the catch was that it was a one-way ticket so you essentially live out the rest of your life on Mars.

http://www.newser.com/story/103953/n...hem-there.html

It got me thinking. Would anyone here be willing to give up their lives on Earth and fly to Mars? To give up friends, family, career, *gasp* DDO, that one shop in Italy that sells the best pasta, etc.

Sure Earth has a lot of troubles. War, famine, crime, poverty, etc. But could that make you leave Earth? What do you guys think?

[Lorien_the_First_One]

You would have to be a little insane to be willing to be stranded forever on a planet with no hope of rescue, no guarentee of survival, and no ability to ever live in anything other than a little artificial box.

[Oolung]

As I read the brief article I thought of the movie "Total Recall" >_<

Let's hope that if it does go into effect it doesn't happen like that...

[FlyingTurtle]

You would have to be a little insane to be willing to be stranded forever on a planet with no hope of rescue, no guarentee of survival, and no ability to ever live in anything other than a little artificial box.

And. No. Internet. Connection. *screams*

[Lorien_the_First_One]

And. No. Internet. Connection. *screams*

Wait wait wait wait... Are you saying I'd have to quit DDO? Ok, definately out then!

[dranreb]

I saw that earlier today.

Really, it's not likely to happen anytime soon.

My first thought when I read it was 'what about the children?' Since it's supposed to be a permanent, or at least 100-year mission, is it really fair to procreate? The volunteers wouldn't just be dooming themselves. I think I have a problem with that.

[kinar]

And. No. Internet. Connection. *screams*

not necessarily....ever heard of DTN?

http://www.dtnrg.org/wiki

now, we aren't exactly talking about broadband access pr anything but it could feasably act as intergalactic snail mail

[Teldurn]

As I read the brief article I thought of the movie "Total Recall" >_<

Let's hope that if it does go into effect it doesn't happen like that...

Do we get aliens with three tatas?

[Sethasoigh]

As i sit here getting yelled at by two little girls, this NASA mission looks just right.

[AyumiAmakusa]

not necessarily....ever heard of DTN?

http://www.dtnrg.org/wiki

now, we aren't exactly talking about broadband access pr anything but it could feasably act as intergalactic snail mail

Talk about super-lag. If playing DDO from the other side of Earth wasn't laggy enough, think of the lag involved if you play from Mars!

[Lithic]

Talk about super-lag. If playing DDO from the other side of Earth wasn't laggy enough, think of the lag involved if you play from Mars!

You would have a ping somewhere in the 1000000ms range. Not to mention about 90000% loss

[khaldan]

... Maybe. It would really depend on what life would be like in 20 years. If I had the choice right now, I'd probably take the flight, but I don't know about how I'd react to leaving everything behind then.

[rezo]

So I just read about NASA planning to send people to Mars for 'free' but the catch was that it was a one-way ticket so you essentially live out the rest of your life on Mars.

http://www.newser.com/story/103953/n...hem-there.html

It got me thinking. Would anyone here be willing to give up their lives on Earth and fly to Mars? To give up friends, family, career, *gasp* DDO, that one shop in Italy that sells the best pasta, etc.

Sure Earth has a lot of troubles. War, famine, crime, poverty, etc. But could that make you leave Earth? What do you guys think?

/ sure, I love road trips. Ok, space trips, lol.

[LightInDark]

People have been leaving everything behind in the hope of a new life for hundreds of years (Think of all those early settlers) why should this be any different ?

[Memnir]

Only if Mars has Wi-Fi.

[Mister_Peace]

I wonder if you could do Coal Chamber with a 5-minute ping.

[Lorien_the_First_One]

People have been leaving everything behind in the hope of a new life for hundreds of years (Think of all those early settlers) why should this be any different ?

To go places that had food, water, air...

[MartinusWyllt]

... Since it's supposed to be a permanent, or at least 100-year mission, is it really fair to procreate?....

I'm betting your point has been made in considering moving to the New World, exile to Australia...all the way back to considering another patch of grass across the river...(there were supposed to be monsters there or something else to make it formidable).

It is a good question to raise. Overall, though, fair does not matter because nothing about life is really all that fair much of the time.

While I would have to seriously consider a 4-5 year mission (in the role of astrobiologist) I would not consider a permanent mission.

[Triepod]

I would definitely go. A pack of cards and I'm good...poker...cribbage...solitaire.. spades... rummy... bridge... a good pack of cards can occupy a lot of time..

[MartinusWyllt]

To go places that had food, water, air...

Likely to be water there, at least.

I'd thought they planned on doing this sooner and was excited to read this:

"Experts say a nuclear-fuelled rocket could shorten the journey to about four months"

It was ridiculous to scrap the nuclear engine program in the first place.

But then I read this:

"Worden also suggested that new technologies such as synthetic biology and alterations to the human genome could also be explored ahead of the mission."

I don't think we're within just a few years of this...20 years, maybe, if you want stable, heritable manipulations that might vaguely be meaningful...not to mention the overarching ethical issue around making permanent alterations to someone's transcribed code. (I personally don't have much of an issue with this so long as the consent is informed, but some people get really upset at the notion.)