Wanted: People willing to die on Mars

CBC ^ | 3/16/13

[LibWhacker]

Mars One co-founder tells CBC about its proposed one-way trip to the Red Planet

Mars One hopes to have people living on the planet — for the rest of their lives — by 2023.(Mars One/YouTube)

The man behind the private space project dubbed Mars One is looking for people to travel to Mars, but he's not offering a return ticket.

"The technology to get humans to Mars and keep them alive there exists," Bas Lansdorp told Day 6 host Brent Bambury in an interview that aired this week on CBC Radio.

"The technology to bring humans from Mars back to Earth simply does not exist yet."

Lansdorp said he's looking for people who are utterly dependable, good in groups and "at their best when things are at their worst."

The never-to-return explorers will require eight years of training, and the search starts this year.

The flight is scheduled to leave in Sept. 2022.

To hear the complete conversation, including how Lansdorp plans to fund the trip, click the audio button above.

[Mr170IQ]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/shackleton/1914/team.html

“MEN WANTED: FOR HAZARDOUS JOURNEY. SMALL WAGES, BITTER COLD, LONG MONTHS OF COMPLETE DARKNESS, CONSTANT DANGER, SAFE RETURN DOUBTFUL. HONOUR AND RECOGNITION IN CASE OF SUCCESS. SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON”

[zeugma]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/shackleton/1914/team.html

“MEN WANTED: FOR HAZARDOUS JOURNEY. SMALL WAGES, BITTER COLD, LONG MONTHS OF COMPLETE DARKNESS, CONSTANT DANGER, SAFE RETURN DOUBTFUL. HONOUR AND RECOGNITION IN CASE OF SUCCESS. SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON”

Yup. I think that was it. I'm pretty sure I originally saw it in a collection of stories and essays about empire put together by Jerry Pournelle. Wish I could find my copies of the 3 books in that series. It was pretty good.