Apparently nearly 7000 canadians have expressed an interest in this mission which has also been described as a suicide mission.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/08...-trip-to-mars/

I wonder if they will release the results and percentages of applications made by ex husbands and wives on behalf of their former partners.

I am relieved that I shall no doubt be too old in 2023 to be put forward by my ex husband as a contender! Phew
Although if they need old farts I could volunteer him... Now there's a thought!!!

I would have thought Canadians would be the best candidates, understand technology and are used to being trapped indoors in frigid weather!

The whole concept of colonizing Mars is crazy, people have watched too many sci-fi movies.

Human beings can't successfully have children in 0.6G, not unless you want them to grow up in centrifuges. Quite apart from the extremely harsh environment.

And the whole concept of this thing is bonkers too, make a TV show out of something where by definition communications are unreliable. By 2023 will anyone still be watching TV?

If you're the lucky one, please don't fold your customs declaration form or they'll just put you on a return mission home again.

I think a lot of people applying don't realize just how cut off they'll be, doesn't it take something like 30mins for a radio signal to get to earth? That means no more live phone calls with friends or family.

Many people probably consider that a bonus.

I think the actual time ranges from about 10 minutes to 30 minutes, depending on the orbital position.

So make the best you can of the world today where you can contact anyone almost instantly. That will never be possible again, once we've moved into space.

We considered it. Decided we'd rather go on a slightly higher budgeted trip once a bit of basic infrastructure is in place.

Me and Zoe have one prenuptial, if one of us gets a chance to go to Mars the marriage is off.

It's cold there, so why not go some place cold and interesting, like Titan or Io? At least you'll get to see some geysers.

Maybe I'll just stick to Arizona in the winter !

I find the lack of pioneering spirit a in this thread a little disheartening to be honest
Ben wasn't joking about the prenup either

I find the lack of pioneering spirit a in this thread a little disheartening to be honest
Ben wasn't joking about the prenup either

I hear Lake Vostok is lovely this time of year, you may never know the joys of life "down-under"...I mean REALLY down and VERY MUCH under.

Well you're talking to a bunch of emigrants so I don't think we lack pioneering spirit.

Personally I think the whole thing is bonkers but this particular proposal is especially bonkers as I said above.

I just wonder about all the crap that is spewed out about Mars. This whole concept that life started there. Well we know from this guy that the creation of life might require a few basic ingredients but the likelihood of it happening naturally is very remote. The evidence is that it only happened once on Earth and we are all evolved from that one event. Once in four billion years. Or more accurately 800 million years, which is how long there has been an oxygenated atmosphere. And now there appears to be evidence that life actually came from a comet, landed on Mars and then landed on the Earth from ejecta so in fact - it's never even happened on Earth naturally.

So we probably won't find evidence there was any life on Mars even with NASA on an almost daily basis now going on about drinkable water being there, etc. And even if there was life there isn't any now.

You can't colonize Mars by definition because there isn't enough gravity to successfully have children and the life expectancy of anyone who goes there will drop off a cliff because of bone loss and other health problems (being exposed to large amounts of radiation there and in transit). All this terraforming stuff is academic, you need 1G to have children. You'd have to put a space station in orbit, spin it fast enough and the kids would have to grow up there. And then whoopee, they get to live in a lifeless freezing desert when they grow up and have a substantially reduced lifespan.

I can see there might be a science station there one day like there is at the poles now but what other reason is there to go there? Great, let's go scratching around looking for fossilized microbes.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, two-thirds of the surface is either unexplored or only marginally explored as James Cameron is fond of pointing out but we don't explore it because it's "too difficult", even though we know for a certain fact there is life there. So let's send people to another lifeless planet instead. It's a dead rock in space, the main defining characteristic of which are the incredibly severe duststorms.

"Oh but if we find life there it increases the odds there is life elsewhere." No it doesn't mean that at all, you can prove anything with a sample size of two as you should have learned in school and moreover it would be a biased sample as it is the nearest planet. Finding evidence of life on Mars tells you nothing about the commonality of life throughout the Universe, statistically speaking. And Europa is a better candidate anyway.

I always think it's the ultimate example of people watching too much TV.

What evidence is that?

I'm desperately trying to figure out what you mean here.