As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/
Options

Should I become a Mars astronaut?

24

Posts

  • Options
    QuidQuid Definitely not a banana Registered User regular
    GrimmyTOA wrote: »
    Quid wrote: »
    Don't sleep with hookers and hated most of the places I ever pulled in to.

    Submarines that park at the bottom of the sea and leave you to rot there for the remainder of your artificially truncated life.

    Yeah welcome to the last three years of my life.

    Not horrible.

  • Options
    JuliusJulius Captain of Serenity on my shipRegistered User regular
    _J_ wrote: »
    Henroid wrote: »
    Shivahn wrote: »
    People have issues when locked into a small space for that long.

    I recommend you take a book or two. Perhaps a video game.

    In all seriousness, I wouldn't do it without a means of getting of the rock once on it. Some people are talking about a one way trip and that sounds like a definite "no" to me. Fuck that shit.

    In discussions such as these I'm often curious about what people like so damn much about Earth that they are unwilling to sacrifice it for the sake of a Mars adventure.

    Well for one thing all my stuff is here.

  • Options
    QuidQuid Definitely not a banana Registered User regular
    Well, I guess it was horrible relatively. But I didn't mind it so long as I had my kindle, net book, and hard drive.

  • Options
    ButtcleftButtcleft Registered User regular
    Quid wrote: »
    Well, I guess it was horrible relatively. But I didn't mind it so long as I had my kindle, net book, and hard drive.

    I wonder how porn would work with a 18 minute ping.

  • Options
    QuidQuid Definitely not a banana Registered User regular
    Buttcleft wrote: »
    Quid wrote: »
    Well, I guess it was horrible relatively. But I didn't mind it so long as I had my kindle, net book, and hard drive.

    I wonder how porn would work with a 18 minute ping.

    Ahem.

    Hard drive.

  • Options
    matt has a problemmatt has a problem Points to 'off' Points to 'on'Registered User regular
    Buttcleft wrote: »
    Quid wrote: »
    Well, I guess it was horrible relatively. But I didn't mind it so long as I had my kindle, net book, and hard drive.

    I wonder how porn would work with a 18 minute ping.

    Two days into the mission...

    "Ah, Mars Lander, this is Houston, we've decided to scrub the mission, ah, there've been some questions about your psychological stability.... we've seen your usage and damn, you guys are fucked up, over."

    nibXTE7.png
  • Options
    ButtcleftButtcleft Registered User regular
    Buttcleft wrote: »
    Quid wrote: »
    Well, I guess it was horrible relatively. But I didn't mind it so long as I had my kindle, net book, and hard drive.

    I wonder how porn would work with a 18 minute ping.

    Two days into the mission...

    "Ah, Mars Lander, this is Houston, we've decided to scrub the mission, ah, there've been some questions about your psychological stability.... we've seen your usage and damn, you guys are fucked up, over."

    I wonder if its going to be public record, or worse taught in schools, that the first martian manned mission was successful in large part to Midget Sluts 5: African Safari

  • Options
    Tiger BurningTiger Burning Dig if you will, the pictureRegistered User, SolidSaints Tube regular
    Buttcleft wrote: »
    Quid wrote: »
    Well, I guess it was horrible relatively. But I didn't mind it so long as I had my kindle, net book, and hard drive.

    I wonder how porn would work with a 18 minute ping.

    porn.png

    Ain't no particular sign I'm more compatible with
  • Options
    BubbyBubby Registered User regular
    edited March 2013
    Wouldn't colonization be helpful if only because one day humanity will need to leave Earth and live on other moons/planets to survive? I know Titan is the best spot NASA has found so far for that, but maybe Mars could be a trial run or something.

    Bubby on
  • Options
    darklite_xdarklite_x I'm not an r-tard... Registered User regular
    This isn't even a question. I'd sign up in a heartbeat, even if the chances of coming back were something like 1%.

    Steam ID: darklite_x Xbox Gamertag: Darklite 37 PSN:Rage_Kage_37 Battle.Net:darklite#2197
  • Options
    TerrendosTerrendos Decorative Monocle Registered User regular
    I was actually having a similar conversation with my sister not too long ago, where I told her, and I'm still confident in my answer... I would volunteer to go into space on a 50% survival chance, so long as it didn't actually cost me money. And I'm not a bad candidate either, engineer, single, no kids, though I'd probably need to be in better shape.

    But yeah, to be a part of such a historical undertaking, I'd absolutely do it.

  • Options
    AustralopitenicoAustralopitenico Registered User regular
    I'd risk a round trip, like the moon mission. I would certainly not spend the rest of my life on a lifeless rock, unless there are hot green amazons. I have the drive to discover, I don't have the drive to sacrifice my life for glory. Let Achilles do that.

  • Options
    _J__J_ Pedant Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    darklite_x wrote: »
    This isn't even a question. I'd sign up in a heartbeat, even if the chances of coming back were something like 1%.

    Even faster signup if the chances of being accidentally stuck in suspended animation for 500+ years, and then being awoken, are around 4% or better.

  • Options
    silence1186silence1186 Character shields down! As a wingmanRegistered User regular
    On the one hand, this sounds really, really cool. I think you're name would go in the history books.

    On the other hand, Where is Everybody?

  • Options
    emnmnmeemnmnme Registered User regular
    I imagine life on Mars wouldn't be much different from life at a research station in the Arctic.

  • Options
    TastyfishTastyfish Registered User regular
    edited March 2013
    Why would they keep shipping the penguins over though? Doesn't sound like that would help at all.

    [edit]You meant Antarctic, research station in the Artic would be pretty much Canada or Norway

    Tastyfish on
  • Options
    Emissary42Emissary42 Registered User regular
    From what I've discussed with a few people about the Tito mission (~500 days in an object no more spacious than a sedan with another person), you would either need to start out insane - at least by most people's definition - or would be by the end of it. That mission sounds like the recipe for a low-budget sci-fi horror film.

    For more long-term, grander prospects there have been ideas like having a trial run in Antarctica with mission candidates for a few years. It's an environment that is nearly as hostile in many respects, and offers almost all of the same isolation and challenges with much fewer risks while the details get worked out for the real deal. Any colony mission without a similar trial stage is almost certain to be bound for what some would refer to as "a bad time."

    I would personally not sign up unless such a mission was being approached with that level of seriousness. There are too many things that can go wrong on a long-term Mars mission, especially the colonization plans being bounced around these days, to risk being turned into the Donner Party meets Apollo 13 because some idiot wants to have the biggest press release by launching too soon.

  • Options
    MillMill Registered User regular
    I think the detractors of the idea are failing to get that there really are some things that can't be simulated. Arctic base, submarine, 1-2 year long trip in orbit around the earth or the controlled experiment can't really account to how someone might panic when they are in a situation where something goes wrong that isn't instant death and rescue ain't fucking happening when one is on mars or months away from Mother Earth.

    The year long trip also has the advantage that you are taking humans, who aren't rational actors, and seeing if your meticulously calculated plans will cut it or if someone will do something intentionally or unintentionally, that actually hoses up things.

    Me personally, I wouldn't do the one way trip. Too much stuff planet side that I would miss, I actually like nature even though I spend less days out in it these days (fuck you global warming for making most days in VA during the summer unbearably hot). Throw in the option to be able to come back and I would be in. As _J_ mentioned, add reliable stasis and I would happily sign up.

    Honestly, I think with a couple people, that would facilitate my social interaction needs and if they have reliable net access, might not even need to interact with people directly. Granted having some actually people there would help to alleviate potential boredom. I think the greatest danger for me would be getting bored and having nothing to kill the time with. Also having some options to get some personal space and do something to kill time would be needed. It's not just a certain quota of socialization that people need, they also need some alone time; especially, to minimize the dangers when people get into heated arguments. This is stuff that a reliable stasis set up could resolve.

    The issues for me here are that I don't have a science degree. Might go back and get one later if I can either get good enough employment to cover the costs or get an employer that will at least cover the costs. Even if I had the science degree, I still have this thing called ankylosing spondylosis, which space probably won't be kind to and that also requires medication which will add more weight to a craft that will probably have quite the payload (also label says to discard it after a year, so I don't know if making enough for a round trip would be feasible).

    As for the OP, if you really want to do it. I say apply, at worse they turn you down or you go through the initial training and then decide you really don't want to do it for one reason or another. Granted, if I were you I would only apply for one that is a return trip, we have robots that are getting better, let the people funding this thing get a legion of robots to build a habitable compound before sticking someone, quite possibly permanently, on the rock called Mars. On another note, you mentioned you don't have kids, you might want to consider your options for the event that you do get picked, go, return and then want a kid, but it turns out that trip through space might have fucked up your ability to have healthy ones.

  • Options
    MillMill Registered User regular
    edited March 2013
    Double post. ><

    Mill on
  • Options
    electricitylikesmeelectricitylikesme Registered User regular
    redx wrote: »
    Corehealer wrote: »
    I wonder if they'd figure out a way for ELM to post from Mars on the forums and use the Internet. To alleviate boredom in the off hours.

    But then we'd end up with a million throwaway accounts from people coming to talk to him.

    Ehh... not that some sort of communication wouldn't be possible, but TCP sort of breaks down when it takes 10 minutes to preform a 3 way handshake. Like, limited bandwidth and minutes of latency really sort of makes the internet as we know it more or less not work good. You're kinda limited to asynchronous connectionless tweet-like/email-ish stuff would probably be about the best you could do.

    Apparently this is an area of research at NASA actually - interplanetary world-wide web. And, in pondering things like 3 years in space, the main point I usually come back to is "how can I keep posting?"

    My consideration of the mental survivability of a trip like that has somewhat been predicated on the idea that you'd have some type of internet access configured.

    As for the 500 days thing: the living quarters aboard the international space station, or Mir, aren't that spacious and we've had people up there for durations approaching the same - the longest was a Russian on Mir for 438 days. Though it is I guess relevant that you'd be a lot further from Earth, but then there's also the psychology the free-return trajectory: no matter what, you're going to coast back to Earth.

  • Options
    The EnderThe Ender Registered User regular
    It's your life; if it were mine, I'd say, "Hell no." Especially as regards a one way trip.

    I think human life is worth far, far more than some suicidal or near-suicidal cowboy adventure to Mars. We can send the fucking robots to Mars for now - when/if we have set-up a colony of some sort, or have terraformed the planet, then we can start sending people over. Robots can do a lot even today, and it'll only get better as we become more experienced with that sort of exploration.


    I really don't get the appeal of human-based exploration (aside from being able to thump your chest and say, "See? We did it!") of other planets in the solar system right now. Earth is much more interesting than any of the other offerings, aside from perhaps the gas giants, because everything else is just fucking rocks everywhere. I mean, you'd land on Mars, and everywhere the surface would look more or less the same. Red desert. Even if you were to walk to some impressive mountain or fissure, it's still just rocks, and nothing but rocks. The only animate things you'd ever encounter would be one of the no-doubt extremely lethal wind storms / tornadoes.

    At least on the moon you can look back at the Earth.

    With Love and Courage
  • Options
    dgs095dgs095 Registered User regular
    I think you should definitely try to become a mars astronaut. I suggest you start by finding nice a girl already in an astronaut program and marrying her. http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/married-couple-to-go-to-mars.aspx?pageID=238&nid=42053

  • Options
    HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    On the one hand, this sounds really, really cool. I think you're name would go in the history books.

    On the other hand, Where is Everybody?

    Oh fuck.

  • Options
    TincheTinche No dog food for Victor tonight. Registered User regular
    I always figured the first humans to actually land on Mars would be part of a proper colony, at least 50 people of various professions, 50%/50% genders, with the expectation of more to follow as soon as the first batch settles in and prepares the site. With the end goal being at least a self-sustaining colony the size of a town.

    Sending a few astronauts to poke around and die doesn't sound all that appealing to me.

    We're marooned on a small island, in an endless sea,
    Confined to a tiny spit of sand, unable to escape,
    But tonight, it's heavy stuff.
  • Options
    The EnderThe Ender Registered User regular
    Sending a few astronauts to poke around and die doesn't sound all that appealing to me.

    And it would be without any purpose, too. There's nothing (or very little) a team of suicidenauts could do that a rover couldn't. It would be extremely expensive to get them there in one piece, it would put a black mark on the space safety record, and for what? So we could say, "Hey, we shot some people off to Mars! Kinda. We've put the first dead bodies on an extraterrestrial world! What a triumph!" ?

    If we're going to construct a big vehicle to do something serious on Mars, it should be a giant robotic vehicle (so we save on any life support or surface-departure capabilities) that can do something like make a little habitat & launch pad. Then we can send someone to Mars, they can stay and do something interesting / worthwhile while they're at the habitat, and they can come back home when they're done.

    With Love and Courage
  • Options
    HonkHonk Honk is this poster. Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    I would sign up for the round trip I think. Maybe.

    PSN: Honkalot
  • Options
    electricitylikesmeelectricitylikesme Registered User regular
    The Ender wrote: »
    Sending a few astronauts to poke around and die doesn't sound all that appealing to me.

    And it would be without any purpose, too. There's nothing (or very little) a team of suicidenauts could do that a rover couldn't. It would be extremely expensive to get them there in one piece, it would put a black mark on the space safety record, and for what? So we could say, "Hey, we shot some people off to Mars! Kinda. We've put the first dead bodies on an extraterrestrial world! What a triumph!" ?

    If we're going to construct a big vehicle to do something serious on Mars, it should be a giant robotic vehicle (so we save on any life support or surface-departure capabilities) that can do something like make a little habitat & launch pad. Then we can send someone to Mars, they can stay and do something interesting / worthwhile while they're at the habitat, and they can come back home when they're done.

    The one way trip plans to Mars do in fact call for this type of thing. It's not a "you definitely die" proposition, it's a "we don't have a solid idea of if or when we can get you back".

    Sending people to Mars actually has enormous benefits - for all the power of rovers, they have to be treated very carefully because everything they do is delayed by 15 minutes. You can't catch yourself in the middle of a move and stop - you have to rely on the onboard logic for that and hope it works out. The rovers are great, but they've always suffered from, despite everything, getting less done then 1 geologist with a shovel could.

    One of the plans I saw called for using Dragon capsules fitted for Mars landing as inter-linking modules for habitation, and linking them all up so they'd form a kind of rover convoy. Something somewhat similar is actually operating in Antarctica right now: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-02/05/antarctic-walking-research-lab. Hell Elon Musk's whole original Mars vision was that he wanted to buy a rocket and launch a greenhouse of plants to Mars, just to show it could be done (well, also it'd be hella useful science). I think he's still planning to do it.

  • Options
    The EnderThe Ender Registered User regular
    Sending people to Mars actually has enormous benefits - for all the power of rovers, they have to be treated very carefully because everything they do is delayed by 15 minutes. You can't catch yourself in the middle of a move and stop - you have to rely on the onboard logic for that and hope it works out. The rovers are great, but they've always suffered from, despite everything, getting less done then 1 geologist with a shovel could.

    But those are just the small rover's we're using today. If you're talking about a manned mission, you'd need to build a vehicle in orbit large enough to get people to the planet. If you're going to do that, just build a bigger damn robot, with a bigger brain and bigger shovel / drill. It should be able to do any surface stuff an astronaut stuck in an environmentally sealed suit could before their oxygen supplies ran out.
    One of the plans I saw called for using Dragon capsules fitted for Mars landing as inter-linking modules for habitation, and linking them all up so they'd form a kind of rover convoy. Something somewhat similar is actually operating in Antarctica right now: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-02/05/antarctic-walking-research-lab. Hell Elon Musk's whole original Mars vision was that he wanted to buy a rocket and launch a greenhouse of plants to Mars, just to show it could be done (well, also it'd be hella useful science). I think he's still planning to do it.

    I'm all game for sending plants / algae to Mars to see what happens (fingers crossed that they somehow adapt to the environment and start to spread), but not people. Not until we're sure we can get them back (or at least as sure that we were with regards to Apollo). Someone already said this, but what if you ran halfway out of your supplies and then had a change of heart? Whoops, too bad; now we get to listen to every painful transmission you send back to Earth begging for some kind of impossible rescue and /or cursing NASA / Space X / society as you slowly die.

    With Love and Courage
  • Options
    MayabirdMayabird Pecking at the keyboardRegistered User regular
    Buttcleft wrote: »
    I wonder if its going to be public record, or worse taught in schools, that the first martian manned mission was successful in large part to Midget Sluts 5: African Safari

    Then the tiny little grandmother gave her significantly larger sobbing grandchild a consoling hug. "It's alright, it's okay," she said. "Do you remember what I had to do when I was your age? I hated it, and not having a real chance to do anything else, but those astronauts on that first Mars mission said I was the only thing that helped preserve their last grasp on sanity. All that money, all that testing for the best and brightest and training and engineering and everything else, but if not for a D-grade porn actress rolling on a sand pile in a cheap studio, it would have failed and history would have been all the worse. I know your job situation seems bad now, hopeless and pointless, but remember what I always said: 'Even the littlest things can lead to the greatest moments...' "

    And then her grandchild managed to pull out a little smile and finished, " '...in bed!' " They shared a little chuckle.

  • Options
    CorehealerCorehealer The Apothecary The softer edge of the universe.Registered User regular
    I'd sign up for a round trip in a heartbeat.

    But space has no need for artists yet sadly.

    488W936.png
  • Options
    CorehealerCorehealer The Apothecary The softer edge of the universe.Registered User regular
    Also:

    2n8dg.jpeg

    488W936.png
  • Options
    electricitylikesmeelectricitylikesme Registered User regular
    If we get really really lucky, we might get Martian atmosphere for free if that comet slams into it head on next year (and is sufficiently large and composed of water and some type of frozen gas).

    I am really really hoping that will happen, though the current projections are it's unlikely.

    Also, it's depressing that Martian atmosphere would cost less then the Iraq and Afganistan wars.

  • Options
    dlinfinitidlinfiniti Registered User regular
    Corehealer wrote: »
    I'd sign up for a round trip in a heartbeat.

    But space has no need for artists yet sadly.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3deNVM3EWIc&amp;feature=player_detailpage

    AAAAA!!! PLAAAYGUUU!!!!
  • Options
    CorehealerCorehealer The Apothecary The softer edge of the universe.Registered User regular
    If we get really really lucky, we might get Martian atmosphere for free if that comet slams into it head on next year (and is sufficiently large and composed of water and some type of frozen gas).

    I am really really hoping that will happen, though the current projections are it's unlikely.

    Also, it's depressing that Martian atmosphere would cost less then the Iraq and Afganistan wars.

    Yeah seriously. Priorities, people.

    488W936.png
  • Options
    override367override367 ALL minions Registered User regular
    I think that chart is being a wee bit optimistic about terraforming mars

    however I'd rather try to terraform the fucking moon than have another mid east war because at least we get scientific progress

    Also fuck the movie contact

  • Options
    CorehealerCorehealer The Apothecary The softer edge of the universe.Registered User regular
    I think that chart is being a wee bit optimistic about terraforming mars

    however I'd rather try to terraform the fucking moon than have another mid east war because at least we get scientific progress

    Also fuck the movie contact

    I am aware of NASA projections and others that say Mars could take upwards of a thousand years to terraform completely, and that the price would naturally be higher and require, at least from the mid stages on, a more permanent human presence in the form of orbiting stations and ground colonies to direct the process further.

    There are a lot of variables to consider.

    488W936.png
  • Options
    curly haired boycurly haired boy Your Friendly Neighborhood Torgue Dealer Registered User regular
    the thing about being cooped up on earth is when you're really desperate and at your breaking point and just need to GET OUTSIDE AND GET SOME FRESH AIR

    you can do that pretty much everywhere on the planet, including antarctica

    can't do that on mars. you get tired of canned air and the same ugly walls and the horrible routine? tough luck.

    the distance is a big factor as well. not only is the environment unlivable, but home - safety - normalcy - not having to give a fuck about each breath you take - is millions of miles away. even extended space-station astronauts get some comfort from knowing they're just a reentry away from being back where they belong.

    it's gonna take a very special person to not crack under that stress. when we put someone on a different planet, beyond the technical hurdles, we're messing with some very primal, extremely deep assumptions that our bodies and subconscious rely on.

    RxI0N.png
    Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
  • Options
    dlinfinitidlinfiniti Registered User regular
    humans leave earth
    reavers reach mars

    AAAAA!!! PLAAAYGUUU!!!!
  • Options
    redxredx I(x)=2(x)+1 whole numbersRegistered User regular
    Corehealer wrote: »

    That's kinda neat.

    Like, it assumes asteroid mining, dropping asteroids on Mars and.... 'importing fossil fuels' to mars like 350 years from now. I wish them luck with that bit.

    I'd really much rather see something with folks living underground/in pressure domes(this has questionable compatibility with dropping asteroids on a planet). 400 years too much of a chance to kill ourselves for my liking. Particularly given the requirement of developing like 5 different technologies that could be used to kill everyone on earth.

    They moistly come out at night, moistly.
  • Options
    The EnderThe Ender Registered User regular
    I think that chart is being a wee bit optimistic about terraforming mars

    however I'd rather try to terraform the fucking moon than have another mid east war because at least we get scientific progress

    Also fuck the movie contact

    It really shouldn't be that difficult to terraform mars; the projections are probably dodgy, but seriously, we'd just need to hit it with rockets carrying whatever gasses we want to 'import' and boom. Stage 1 complete.

    Then you just send plants over to darken the surface & create oxygen. There's probably enough water already on the damn planet without us 'importing' extra water or trying to guide comets onto the surface; it's just frozen and can't unfreeze without sublimating due to the atmospheric pressure (or lack thereof).

    With Love and Courage
Sign In or Register to comment.