A Suicide trip to Mars

The Mars One project is planning to send its first crew on a one way mission to Mars in 2024 with a landing in 2025. There is much work and fund raising to be done before the project gets off the ground.

http://www.mars-one.com/mission/roadmap

I am hoping that the project fails to raise the funds for a number of reasons:

It is unrealistic to plan a mission to go anywhere if the explorers have no chance of coming back to tell us in person about their experiences,

It is immoral to persuade young people to accept that they are going on a one way journey from which there is no return and no rescue if something goes wrong,

It is immoral to persuade someone to accept isolation which could lead to a lonely existence millions of miles from their home planet and their family, friends and fellow human beings,

It is immoral to bring children into being in a completely alien world,

The purpose of the colonisation of another planet is of debateable if not dubious benefit to humanity.

All astronauts and cosmonauts are brave people and they accept that their lives are at risk but all missions into space are based on the hope that the explorers will return home safely. When Yuri Gagarin first went into space he did so on the basis that he had a fair chance of returning even though rescue if something went wrong was not possible.

The same applied to Aldrin, Armstrong and Collins when they first travelled to the moon. The pioneers accepted that a rescue mission to the moon was not possible if they became stranded but they always maintained the hope that the mission would succeed and they would return to their families.

When Apollo 13 got into difficulties strenuous and ingenious efforts were made to bring back the pilots safely. It is part of our humanity not to give up hope and we owe it to our fellow humans to try to rescue them when they get into difficulty.

One of the justifications for the Mars One mission is that many people, in the past, have emigrated knowing that they will never see their relatives and friends again and survived. However, there was still hope that fortunes might change and a return would be possible or their friends and relatives could come and join the pioneers in their new country.

Many people in the past have been banished form their country and sent to new continents and survived but this was cruel punishment for what might have been petty crime.

Some explorers got into severe difficulties: the Shackleton  Endurance expedition to the South Pole in 1914 saw the team of explorers being marooned in the Antarctic for over a year. In the end Shackleton made strenuous and brave efforts to rescue all his men. It was probably the most valiant rescue mission in history. Where there is life there is hope. Perhaps where there is no hope there can be no life. Read this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/shackleton_ernest.shtml

At its closest, when both planets are in opposition to the Sun, Mars is 54.6 million km from the Earth. This is a colossal distance. A radio signal would take 3 minutes to reach earth so a reply signal could not be received within 6 minutes. When the Earth and Mars are both at aphelion the distance from each other is 401 million km so a radio signal and its reply would take considerably longer than 6 minutes.  No-one has been trained to experience such isolation in terms of distance; we have no knowledge how explorers would react to such a one way trip.

W e have no real knowledge of how anyone would react when they are prevented from seeing and touching their family and friends for such a long time when they are also living in a totally alien environment.

The gravity on Mars is 38% that of the Earth. We have no idea of the really long term effect of reduced gravity on the human anatomy and psychology.

The explorers will be living in a totally artificial environment: apart from the reduced gravity they will be forced to breathe recycled air, drink recycled water and eat recycled food for a very extended period. We have no idea how this will affect their morale and physical and mental well being.

The explorers will have to wear a spacesuit when they leave their habitation. The atmosphere is 95% carbon dioxide at 1% of the pressure of the Earth. Any accident or tear to the spacesuit will probably result in death. The average temperature of the planet is minus 60 degrees Celsius.

The planet's surface is like a desert and dust storms can last for months.

The Mars year is 687 Earth days but the length of day is just over 24 Earth hours - so there is some familiarity on a daily basis.

On Mars there will be no sound of a river or a breeze rustling the leaves of trees. There will be no smell of a wild flower. You will not be able to feel the sun on your skin. You will not be able to taste wild fruits. As Mars is much smaller than the Earth the horizon will be closer.

The outside light will be completely different. The sky will not be blue and there will be no clouds. There will be no rain to sense.

Could virtual reality make up for what you are missing?

In this completely alien world how long would your sanity last when you are completely isolated from your friends and family as well?  You might become so homesick that your mental health would really suffer.

Your opportunity to find a lover might be really restricted; you could end up having very little physical contact with your fellow humans. If you do find a lover then what happens if you split up? There maybe nowhere to hide.

What right do you have to have a baby which will be forced to grow up in a totally alien environment? From an evolutionary point of view, a baby will be totally ill adapted to live in such an alien world. What would happen to its physical development when exposed to considerably reduced gravity?

On Mars there will be no enforceable laws so what happens if someone becomes violent or murders someone? Will there be rough justice?

Mental difficulties could easily arise because of the isolation, the alien environment and poor interpersonal relations. There is no hope of relief or even rescue. Is there provision for a mental hospital?

I can see such a mission quickly becoming a disaster when there is no hope of return. This coupled with the chance of something going wrong with the equipment could lead to a complete catastrophe.

I can see the point of a manned mission to Mars but only for a scientific purpose and only if the explorers have a fair chance of returning home. To persuade young persons to go on a one way trip which they might completely regret is simply immoral.

We do not need to colonise Mars; where are the long term benefits? It is best to make the best of the good Earth and cherish what it has to offer for as long as we are alive.