Why Do 202,586 People Want To Leave Our Planet For Mars?

(Before It's News)

Why Do 202,586 People Want To Leave Our Planet For Mars?

                      This Viking 1 orbiter image shows the rocky surface and thin atmosphere of Mars.

It’s getting harder and harder to exchange information in America. No one seems to be speaking the same language. Special-interest buzz around every issue is almost indecipherable. Even worse, everyone wants to talk, but no one wants to listen. People who should be my friends – the ones who write editorials for big-city newspapers or best-selling books on food, and their foodie followers – should want to be buddies with guys like me. Family farmers should be at the head of the table. Instead, these folks are putting us on the menu.

That’s what Lorraine Lewandrowski just talked about on Daily Yonder last week when New Yorkers forgot to include farmers in their talk about food.

But it’s not just the foodies who like to see my head on a plate. On the other end of the spectrum, big government, big agriculture and big corporations would like to be rid of me, too, because I’m not big enough to affect their bottom line.

We’ve been alienated.

How did I get to this place in time where outlanders supposedly come in peace, but put me in a pressure cooker? Like Rod Serling said in his voice over soliloquy, “Man has gone from dust to dessert, from ruler of a planet to ingredient in someone’s soup.”

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According to a recently published report, the report states “You could say that most people would rather lose a leg than live the rest of their life on a cold, hostile planet, having said goodbye to friends and family forever, the best possible video call suffering from a seven minute delay—one way.”
True enough, I thought upon encountering this statement on the website of Mars One. Mars One is a Dutch non-profit organization that intends to establish a human colony on Mars by 2025. (You can follow Mars One’s plans on Twitter).

For 202,586 people, though, the idea of living forever on that “cold hostile planet” is apparently no nightmare but rather a cherished dream. That’s precisely how many applications Mars One says it received during its open call (April through August 2013) for future Mars residents. The hopefuls hailed from 140 countries, with the United States (24 percent), India (10 percent) and China (6 percent) leading the pack.

This massive group has now been whittled down to 1,058 finalists, ranging from a woman who is a first lieutenant in the United States Army to a man who is a student at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Next, a final group of 24 astronauts — the ones who will establish human life on Mars — will be chosen.

If these plans to launch for Mars become reality, the interplanetary journey will take 7 to 8 months. So why the one-way ticket? An obvious constraint is the ability to assemble the right-stuff technology, on Mars, to launch a rocket back home again. There’s also an intense 8-year training period, and thus a big investment in these 24 individuals. Mars One explains that the astronauts, before leaving Earth:

“will be isolated from the world for a few months every two years in groups of four in simulation facilities, to learn how they respond to living in close quarters while isolated from all humans except for the three crew members. In addition to the expertise and work experience they must already possess, they have to learn quite a few new skills: physical and electrical repairs to the settlement structures, cultivating crops in confined spaces, and addressing both routine and serious medical issues such as dental upkeep, muscle tears and bone fractures.”
Perhaps, also, it makes sense to seek only those hardy souls who are prepared to make a permanent commitment — no escape clauses! — to life on Mars.

I don’t know a single one of the applicants. I do admire their courage. Yet might there be an elephant-in-the-room type of question that needs to be asked?

View More Of The Story Here  http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2014/04/10/300601241/why-do-202-586-people-want-to-leave-our-planet

Published on Mar 6, 2014

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