27 May 2008
One-way Mission to Mars
Posted by Ryan Anderson
On a day when we recognize all the men and women that have given their lives for our country, Universe Today has an interesting article about how soldiers might serve, not only here on Earth, but in our exploration of the solar system. SFC William H. Ruth of the 101st Airborne Division has a decidedly outside-the-box idea:
Send battle-hardened, strong-minded soldiers and marines on the long trips into space. We are conditioned to live with the bare minimal (of) life’s necessities and are trained to be prepared for … the worst conditions that any environment could throw at us. Hell, me and my men will go, set up a colony somewhere and await colonists to arrive.
NASA is understandably risk-averse, so I don’t see them ever sending a one-way human mission, but SFC Ruth has a point, and puts it better than I can:
Who else has the mentality to volunteer to face certain danger and possibly death, thousands of miles away from their homes? I could think of a few hundred thousand that do it everyday across this planet.
The men and women who risk everything to serve our country deserve tremendous respect, no matter what you think of the wars in which they serve, and Ruth’s bold idea gives me yet another cause to salute them.
We used to be MEN! We went to the Moon in less than a decade!
Now everything is so risk-adverse and PC, it’s sickening.
There are plenty of qualified people who would happily go to Mars
and stay there permanently. So it’s not like we’d have to force
people to do this.
I also say we sent criminals and psychos and other social deviants
to Mars and cause their ships to explode after landing (see, I am
not totally cruel – I said to wait until after the scum got out of them).
That’s how Australia got started, and look how well that place turned out!
So show some backbone and cahones, humanity, and get into space to stay!