Even as a very young hardcore sf reader, I knew I would never be part of a one-way space mission, because I can barely stand to spend a long weekend trapped in the house with a handful of people I love, much less a bunch of random strangers. (And, yes, I did not rate my chances of appealing to a quorum of those strangers, either.) But Murphy the Trickster God bless the… idealists… who are willing to share their dreams of Martian colonization with all the world and the Boston Globe:
When the initial tingle had passed and the idea had been given time to marinate and settle, Peter Degen-Portnoy said his family split into camps regarding his decision to commit to a one-way trip to Mars.
His sons think it’s cool.
His two oldest daughters stopped speaking with him.
And his wife left him.
Three years ago, Degen-Portnoy, a 54-year-old father of five from Stoneham, was one of 100 semifinalists chosen for Mars One, a wildly ambitious Dutch-led project that ultimately seeks to colonize Mars, beginning in 2032, with 20 permanent, never-to-return-to-Earth settlers. The plan has been controversial from the moment it was announced in 2012, with serious questions about the technological feasibility, as well as the plan to fund much of the mission.
Mars One organizers say the project can be accomplished for roughly $6 billion; critics say that is preposterous, as is the plan to raise much of that through corporate sponsorship and the sale of television rights.
The mission is currently far, far away from becoming a reality — millions of miles and millions of questions remain about how they will get there, how they will survive on Mars and build a self-sustaining colony, and of course how they will survive the trip. The current plan involves sending supplies ahead, then sending crews of four crammed into spaceships the size of a tour bus for the 18-month journey. When solar flares erupt, they will retreat into a bathroom-sized pod, surrounded by water for protection, for several claustrophobic days at a time.
While space experts and keyboard cowboys continue their debate, Degen-Portnoy and the three other semifinalists from Massachusetts have been dealing with the very real impact on their personal lives that comes when you make a commitment to a one-way trip to outer space.
For whether they go to Mars or not, “the 100,” as they call themselves, are the first humans to actually experience the terrestrial repercussions of making such an extravagant extraterrestrial commitment…
But there’s also a love story! Much more at the link — along with a full-sized version of the video clip at the top.
raven
Hmm No Bic Sci Fi.
Baud
Yet here you are, trapped in here with us.
Baud
@raven: How is Freedom + 1 for the bride?
WereBear
I get where his family is coming from. He wants to leave and not come back.
Steeplejack (phone)
What’s preposterous is that Degen-Portnoy, who will be 68 when the mission starts, got selected at all. I wonder if he is helping with the financing? I smell a grift somewhere in here.
HeleninEire
Well, we did it. The 8th amendment to the Irish constitution was repealed yesterday. By a 70/30 margin. Abortion will now be legal in Ireland. WOOT!!!!!
Baud
@HeleninEire: Congrats! Are there any restrictions left?
HeleninEire
@Baud: The vote was to repeal the amendment that gave a fetus the same rights as a woman. Now the negotiations begin as to what, exactly will be allowed. No clue what the outcome will be, but with such a large margin, I think the law will be relatively liberal. The Irish, despite (or most likely because of) church rule, are a liberal lot.
Amir Khalid
I don’t have a Boston Globe account, and they won’t let me read the story in a private window. So eff’em. Then I looked up Mars One on Wikipedia. What I found there makes me doubt that these starry-eyed would-be settlers will ever see Mars except through a telescope.
raven
@Baud: We’ll see. Saturday I go to the bakery, farmer’s market and hardware store and she stays in the rack. So far our conversations about what’s what have been in the form of discussions with other people when they ask. I figure the drive to the beach will be a good time to get going in earnest.
raven
@HeleninEire: So it’s not just exit polls?
Baud
@HeleninEire: It’s nice to see a country moving in the right direction.
Baud
@raven: Good luck.
p.a.
If there’s tv rights and something does actually get in the air it will basically be Faces of (High Tec) Death.
Cermet
No one is going to Mars any time soon; in recent animal studies the exposure to Galactic Cosmic Radiation (GCR) would lead to dementia in five or six months. The long term hazarded to the massive neutron flux from the Mars surface by the CGR, while never really tested, would likely be fatal in a few years, Every three years one would receive a the max allowed lifetime radiation dose – how long that could be tolerated, again, not fully known, but would be again, be likely fatal within ten years or so. Mars surface dust is looking highly toxic because it may very well contain Perchlorates, besides it other bad aspects (extremely reactive to organics and very abrasive nature.)
These issues must be addressed and because the staggering cost to put every kilogram on the surface, not easy to address. I have studied these issues (and many others) for a long time; they and other safety issues can be over come but not using any approach currently out there.
HeleninEire
@raven: No. They started counting at 6 this morning. The votes are following the exit polls precisely. The most conservative box they have opened so far was 50/50 down south, but places like Dublin are coming in at +70 for repeal.
raven
I’m reading “The Retirement Maze” and it is very informative.
Amir Khalid
@Steeplejack (phone):
That’s a sign of poor mission planning. Per Wikipedia, the launch date has been pushed back from 2020 to 2022 to 2027 to 2032, and the age cutoff should have shifted with it.
raven
@HeleninEire: Great
HeleninEire
@Baud: Yes. GDPR (enhanced online privacy rights) kicked in yesterday and we’ve all been getting emails for a week from everyone who has our email or credit card info asking for permission to keep the info, as is required by the law. A friend asked me why she wasn’t hearing from American companies who have her info. I GUFFAWED. Told her that America is going in the opposite direction; gutting regulations!
David Evans
Their first manned missions are planned to land in 2032. I expect Elon Musk’s BFR to be there by then. Possibly with more people and a return capability.
raven
@Baud: Also, I should point out that I have been in what is traditionally more of a women’s role more than once. I moved here 33 years ago when my then-wife completed her doc and took a faculty position. I went back to school for my masters and then went to work. In this situation it is me who has been at home alone for the past 13 years and she who has gone to work. In looking at adjustment issues in the book the person who has been at home often experiences difficulty in the new situation so, even thought I’m going to keep working from home, I expect “issues” to arise.
Baud
@HeleninEire: Lots of U.S. countries are complying with GDPR, but otherwise you are correct.
Baud
@raven: I can’t wait until I can retire. It actually might be sooner than expected if things keep going the way they are.
raven
@Baud: I have such tremendous flexibility in my job (and faculty football tix) that working for another year is not all that bad for me.
SectionH
@HeleninEire: Yes! So Yes! It was inspiring, dammit. 70-30? (Fuck it, let me round up in a minor way, comparatively).
HeleninEire
@raven: I have a great friend here who retired a few weeks ago. 65 years old and had been working for 50. She was afraid of exactly what that article says. This morning she got on a plane for Bairittz, France. She will walk the entire Camino de Santiago. 500 miles!
Baud
@raven: I should be happier where I am. It has a lot of benefits. But my ego is too big to be satisfied with my current situation.
OzarkHillbilly
That right there says they don’t have a clue of what the realities truly are. A self sustaining colony would take hundreds of years to build if even then.
Chet Murthy
@David Evans: I wonder what the rocket equation has to say about that.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@raven: I’m on of those boomers and I “retired” last year. I knew about myself that I needed structure so I’ve got lots of plates spinning in the air. I also knew I had no interest in spending all my days golfing or fishing, especially since I’ve never done either. I had a pretty good idea what I wanted to spend my energy on and I’m pretty much doing it.
Can’t survive without replacement income forever, but I need a lot less than I did. I have no plans to be anyone’s employee again. Not that the last job was bad, it was actually quite enjoyable. Except for physical stuff like getting up at 4:30 am and working in a place with about 1/4 of the bathroom space they needed.
TS (the original)
@raven: As a retired baby boomer – I love being retired – as does Mr TS – although he can’t stop himself working 1 day a week (and I quite enjoy that home alone day). We do what we want when we want – sleep in, get up early – dine out – dine in – visit family – stay away from family – whatever.
Marriage is fine, social life is fine, not disconnected from anything – except going to work. Anyone who has difficulty adjusting to having time to smell the roses needs to rethink their priorities and think about all those things they never had time to do.
Life is good – except for the politics.
NotMax
Now, when they’re looking for volunteers to make the journey solo, you’ll find me at the head of the line.
@raven
Feature, not a bug. Indubitably and absolutely.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Hmm. Until today the site always remembered my nym and email on the phone. Looks like I’ve joined the ranks of those who have to fill it in fresh each time.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@OzarkHillbilly:
And Mexico will pay for it.
Baud
@NotMax: I’ve been there for a while now.
TS (the original)
@HeleninEire:
https://liveblog.irishtimes.com/d1719622b8/Emphatic-Yes-victory-expected-from-referendum-count/
I shall henceforth be exceedingly proud of my 25% Irish heritage. Bless ’em all.
NotMax
@HeleninEire
Would have been 71/29 absent that darn Russian meddling.
:)
Raven
I love all this input!
NotMax
Stretched out earlier, shut the eyes and listened to a half dozen or so episodes of old time radio’s Vic ‘n’ Sade. Arose rested and placid. Better than a vacation.
OzarkHillbilly
Nice profile of Chelsea Clinton:
NotMax
Also too, actively avoiding TCM’s weekend war-a-thon. Queued up stuff on both Netflix and Amazon Prime in advance when realized Memorial Day weekend was approaching.
Sm*t Cl*de
@Amir Khalid:
Nor will they see their money again.
glaukopis
@TS (the original): I’m another baby boomer who retired two years ago. I moved to the Midwest from California to be near grandchildren, worked on Hillary’s campaign, joined a knitting group and a ukulele group, just started autoharp lessons, and took Spanish classes before a trip to Spain last Fall. I’m going to Edinburgh this summer and hope to go to China next year. I’d do more, especially gardening, but my body is complaining a bit about being old. It’s a sad irony that just when we’re free to do all the things we wanted to do, the body starts to betray us.
HeleninEire
@TS (the original): Thank you for that link. Very informative.
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
NY Mag don’t understand what the word nepotism means very well, do they? It could be dubbed favoritism but AFAIK neither Bill nor Hillary works at NBC, much less in a position involving decisions regarding hiring there, so not nepotism.
Raven
@glaukopis: I’ll really be urging an upgrade of exercise for the princess. We have a fami;y Y membership but she doesn’t care for it. We walk a couple of miles in the am and she gardens like mad but additional cardio is necessary. Plus, she’s only 60!
MomSense
@NotMax:
Have you watched The Durrells in Corfu? I’m halfway through the second season and thoroughly enjoying it.
Raven
@NotMax: We liked the 1st season of Bosch.
SectionH
@Amir Khalid: IDK, possibly they’re stupid? Well meaning stupid in this case, but damn.
(edited because I totally got into a rant about US morans. Sorry.
Baud
@MomSense: I didn’t read about your surgery until after the fact. Hope you are feeling well.
Baud
@NotMax: If you’ll remember, people also forgot to look up the meaning of “dynasty” in 2016.
Some people deserve Trump.
NotMax
@MomSense
Recommendation noted. One of those things always see listed which also always gets put on the mental secondary, ‘maybe later’ list.
Jeffro
45 comments in, and no one has grabbed the low-hanging fruit about folks they’d like to put on a one-way trip to Mars (be it Dolt45, a family member, a Kardashian, all of the above)?
I’m impressed, folks.
Happy Saturday!
Baud
@Jeffro: This blog respects Martians.
glaukopis
@Raven: yes, exercise is essential, especially for me since too many of my favorite activities are done sitting. I tore my rotator cuff slipping on ice my first winter here, but the PT said there were clearly long term problems from sitting at a desk for years in my IT job. I’ve had to do a lot of specific exercises for the injury & belong to a club, but really prefer walking myself.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone ? ??
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: Yeah, I caught that too. Somebody needs a dictionary.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
rikyrah
@HeleninEire:
Bravo ???
NotMax
@Baud
Most especially the ones wearing tennis shoes and an armor tutu.
(What happens in the clip is his own fault for focusing in on Floriduh.)
@Raven
Also noted. Currently have a lengthy list of B pix, mostly British, from the 30s and 40 lined up on Amazon. None of which air on TCM.
:)
oldgold
The loss of identity associated with retirement is a real fear of mine.
I know a lot of “professionals” who share this fear. Perhaps it is a stupid and vain concern, but it is real.
tobie
@MomSense: I love that show and I hear the book on which it’s based (My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell) is even funnier. I think I’ll read all his autobiographical memoirs over the next year. There’s something so good-natured about the show–it’s balm to the soul right now.
Amir Khalid
@NotMax:
Maybe they think that NBC hired Chelsea because of Bill and Hillary’s fame, or so that Bill and Hillary would owe NBC access. The first would be silly, the second a rational but probably wrongheaded calculation. Neither would be actual nepotism.
SFAW
@Amir Khalid:
As the saying goes “It’s certain to succeed — what could possibly go wrong?”
NotMax
@tobie
Read the book a l-o-n-g time ago (1950s or maybe very, very early 1960s). Unable to drag up any specifics aside from a positive feeling about it.
MomSense
@Baud:
Thanks. I think I underestimated how long it would take to feel better. I’m lucky to have the long weekend to rest.
@NotMax:
I think you will love it.
@tobie:
It really is balm for the soul. I’ve been thinking of getting My Familyand Other Animals, too.
OzarkHillbilly
Life and death on a superyacht: ‘If something goes wrong, they can just raise the anchor and leave’
………………….
……………………
And people wonder why I sometimes say “First thing we do, let’s kill all the rich.”
SectionH
@MomSense: Second season? Yay! Yes, I watched the first season. Kinda regretted I’d bought it, but I couldn’t resist. It wasn’t terrible, but way too much Mother behind the scenes. Because the book was about the boy. I wanted the book Moar critters.
I started with the Durrells reading Larry, but then there was Gerry, and fuck it, critters. So I’ve read and loved everything Gerry wrote, and have been to his “Zoo” on Jersey, the Wildlife Preservation Trust he created, and it’s wonderful. So yeah.
Larry could write too, of course. But if you want to have fun, go look for his Dip books, Esprit De Corps and Stiff Upper Lip – they were as funny when I read them years ago as they must have been when they were published, and I bet they’ve aged just as well.
Also too, dammit, hope you’re recovering .
NotMax
@NotMax
Now that think on it some more, recall that book holding a (relative) place of prominence in the house, permanently available in the upstairs bathroom as the only reading material ensconced there. So I probably read through it sporadically over the course of several years.
MattF
No one’s mentioned Kim Stanley Robinson’s trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars) which is entertaining and (probably) gets the Mars science more-or-less right. Of course, a lot of very unlikely things happen in the books, but it’s fiction, after all.
debbie
@Steeplejack (phone):
Or, knowing his age, that they won’t have to worry about getting him back to Earth?
debbie
@HeleninEire:
I heard even the more conservative, rural areas voted for repeal. Nice!
SectionH
@tobie: There are 3 Corfu books. My Family is the first. Fauna and Family is another one, and I’ll try to remember the 3rd one. I think Beasts in the title. But don’t stop there. Go find his book about filming in New Zealand. It’s…educational.
eta or A Zoo in My Luggage…his Mum does come into it there a bit.
MattF
@HeleninEire: Good news. And, I’m guessing that the truly awful history of Catholic rule in Ireland had a lot to do with it.
NotMax
First time came across a blatant plug inserted as subtitles, displaying something totally different from the audio track, just this week.
During the opening credits was this (paraphrasing):
“Whether you like or don’t like this movie, check out the other 12 films director [his name] has made. You’re bound to like at least ONE of them.”
Walker
@Steeplejack (phone):
Everyone selected for the mission is helping with financing. Mars One is a notorious scam. Gizmodo pointed this out three years ago:
Mars One is broke, disorganized, and sketchy as hell
Lapassionara
@Raven: She can get a cardio work out gardening, if she does it the way I do. I am constantly hauling wheelbarrows full of mulch or compost, which I buy in bulk from a supply store nearby. This sort of thing is a daily activity for me, weather permitting. In winter, I use the Y, which is boring, so gardening is great both physically and mentally.
And way to go, Ireland!
debbie
@Lapassionara:
There’s a woman in my neighborhood, somewhere in her late 70s or early 80s, who exercises every single day regardless of the weather. She alternates between power walking and biking. She’s a bit stooped, but that hasn’t slowed her down. My back won’t let me walk with a lot of speed, and she blows by me whenever we’re out at the same time. I pretty much know her circuit, and I’d bet it’s somewhere around five miles, if not more. That’s what retirement does, it gives you time for what you like doing. And it’s clearly helping this woman.
NotMax
re: above
Another perennial on the maybe later list on Netflix is Cable Girls. Look intriguing enough (even If soapy) but somehow never get around to it. Anyone sampled it?
David Evans
@Chet Murthy: I haven’t looked at the detailed design of the BFR, but Musk’s Falcon 9 and Falcon 9 Heavy do exactly what he said they would do. I was amazed to see his first stages landing back on the barge – my instincts said it couldn’t be done. I would not bet against Musk doing anything he says he can do, given the money.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@MattF: Read them long ago, can’t remember details except that IIRC they terraformed Mars.
More recently read Ben Bova’s planetary exploration books. In “Mars” he puts the cost of the mission at $250 billion, and it only happens because one dedicated rich guy spends 20 years cajoling most of the nations on earth to kick in with money and resources. That struck me as a probably-realistic view of what it will take.
Gretchen
@raven: I retired in January. I haven’t missed work for a minute. It helps that I hated the people I worked for and am happy to be rid of them. I go to the gym in the morning, take care of the grandson in the afternoon, garden in the evening. Working got in the way of living.
NotMax
@MomSense
If you haven’t yet seen it, you might like Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks (Amazon Prime). The years have dulled none of the shine of Gena Rowland’s talent. Unpretentious and enjoyable little dramedy.
tobie
@SectionH: Thank you for all these recommendations! I leave tomorrow for a six week trip so need to fill my kindle with good reading material for my travels. I think I’ll take a crack at Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet, too.
A Ghost To Most
I retired in January as well. Working with “those people” broke me. We are poorer but much happier.
HinTN
@Raven: Six years ago when I began looking at 60 I read up on the advantages of light (emphasis on the light) weight work as an antidote to potential osteoporosis. So I started doing just a little bit, and 10 minutes on an elliptical-like (Arc Trainer) machine to warm up. Never pushing too hard so I didn’t burn out. Just a steady dose three days a week. It really made a difference and I’m still at it. Nothing fancy, just a routine. FWIW
Elizabelle
Good morning, all.
Still rather taken with this green orb; happy to explore it further. Mars: for someone else.
MattF
@David Evans: Musk is very good at some things. I wouldn’t bet, though, on his talents for mass production of cars. See, e.g., this company‘s teardown of a Tesla. It’s… ugly.
Kay
We’re going kayaking on the Pere Marquette River. It’s an easy river-slow. One year I saw 3 women out there in a canoe that looked like a gondola- all curliqued and elaborate- with one of the three sitting in the center on a kitchen stool, like a queen.
I guilted our 15 year old into going because his father’s birthday is Monday.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Go Kay?
Citizen_X
@Chet Murthy: BFR is supposed to do in situ refueling on Mars, making methane from Martian water and CO2. THAT part is realistic, at least.
I think Mars is going to end like Antarctica—a MORE HOSPITABLE place—with a population of a couple thousand or so researchers. Maybe the site of the Mars One tragedy will be a place of history and a warning unto others.
rikyrah
What if…
44 had hired a spy firm to investigate and get dirt on Republicans???
https://twitter.com/tparsi/status/1000184705294258177?s=20
different-church-lady
So, uh… how long can someone retire on $8000?
NotMax
@MattF
Apparently he has seen the light.
Baud
@different-church-lady: Depends. Is it in bitcoins?
Gretchen
I’d gotten used to the idea that some things were beyond me now at age 65. I tried to teach the grandson to skip and couldn’t get off the ground. I signed up for a boot camp class at the gym which kept asking me to do things that were a little beyond me. One class had a skipping exercise. I was ready to say I can’t do that but was surprised to find that I now can. Take those gym classes!
Gretchen
@Kay: He’ll enjoy it. He just won’t be able to admit he enjoyed it. It sounds fun.
tybee
@different-church-lady: Thursday.
debbie
@Kay:
Yep, you’re a mom! ;)
Kay
@rikyrah:
It’s nice. I love the greeny light on rivers.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Citizen_X: I think we’ll end up with some scientific infrastructure (GPS, comms satellites, deep space support for fuel, repairs, emergency supplies) whoever ends up going to the surface, even if just robots. In fact I think some satellites were already up there supporting the rovers.
DARPA some years back had a program for “delay-tolerant networks” to figure out how to make a Mars based network participate in the internet. Not sure what came out of that program, but it’s a sign that serious engineering is being done for Mars.
Kay
@debbie:
I listened to his alternative music selections for 3 hours in the car as a kind of trade. He and his friends all follow this site- “Bandcamp” so he’ll say things like “this band is where punk was in the 90’s” and then I need remedial help so I have to say “where was punk in the 1990’s?” Where. Exactly. :)
zzyzx
I completely changed my body in my 40s. I got diagnosed with diabetes and started doing 30 minutes of exercise at a brisk pace. That became running and now I’m gearing up for another half marathon as an early 50th birthday celebration this fall. My original goal was to be able to run .2 miles, not 13.1.
It depends on your personality, but once you start, it can take over a bit. I still hate going out every morning, but once I get into it, it’s usually OK and I feel amazing when it’s over.
O. Felix Culpa
@HeleninEire: Funny, I walked the 500 miles of the Camino after I retired too. One of the greatest experiences of my life. I hope your friend has a great time.
SectionH
@tobie: I hope you can find them, or some. The Quartet isn’t light reading, but very worthwhile in the long run.
Have a great trip!
Jack the Second
@Citizen_X:
Ought to be good for a Doctor Who episode at least.
kindness
Why would one want to live on Mars? It has no large magnetic field to protect inhabitants from gamma rays & other harmful radiation. There is barely an atmosphere and it isn’t oxygen. And with current technology, it’s a one way ticket with no guaranteed re-supply.
Yea, no. Sounds pretty dumb to me.
Gelfling 545
@raven: My aunt ( who passed away 5 years ago at age 99, God love her) never worked outside the home from the day of her wedding onward. Then my uncle retired. A month later she went out and got a job. Way too much togetherness for her.
dmsilev
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Sort of. The satellites we have orbiting Mars all have their various primary missions of photography and other instrumentation, but some of the newer ones have as a secondary mission the ability to serve as a communications relay for landers. You can put a bigger radio dish and more solar panels on a satellite than can easily be crammed into a lander or rover, so the surface craft typically have a low-bandwidth direct connection to Earth and then a higher bandwidth/short range radio that talks to the satellites which then relay the pictures etc. back to us.
Gretchen
@Gelfling 545:
MomSense
@NotMax:
Ooh, that sounds great.
zzyzx
@kindness: That’s why it’s not the kind of place to raise a kid.
Elizabelle
Free Fred! Item in full, from the LA Times:
Here’s the original story, from the San Luis Obispo Tribune.
No Drought No More
Dr. Guido Sarducci once wrote NASA a well and soberly written, yet ludicrous request that they calculate how much fuel he would need to make a round trip ticket to Mars. They replied with a soberly written yet ludicrous letter of their own, which ended with everyone at NASA wishing him a “bon voyage”.
I think $6 billion dollars could buy a lot of psychiatric help.
HinTN
@zzyzx: When I first moved beyond cardio and weights my goal was one (1) situp. That took less than the year I gave myself to get there, but it wasn’t a cake walk.
MattF
@No Drought No More: Father Guido Sarducci. Please.
schrodingers_cat
I got my jury questionnaire. It has the most peculiar questions.
MattF
@Elizabelle: Octopods are quite amazing. Their only apparent drawback as pets or pals is their short lifespan.
schrodingers_cat
Guess what guys DHS is a subsidiary of T’s business. DHS has issued additional 15,000 H2-B visas this year, the kind Mr Combover uses for his golf clubs and the like.
Elizabelle
@MattF: Didn’t know that. How old would a 70 pounder like Fred be?
They are intelligent enough to solve puzzles. The more you learn, the more concerned about eating (big) octopi and, of course, pigs, delicious as they be.
MattF
@Elizabelle: Intertubes say octopi die shortly after reproducing. Otherwise the ‘giant’ types will live up to five years.
germy
@MattF:
I thought he wrote those old letters under a different name. Lazio Toth or something?
germy
@Elizabelle:
I wonder if future generations will eat only lab-grown meat, and look back at our era in disbelief that we could consume animals with faces and feelings.
Cermet
@Citizen_X: LOL; first off, generating fuel with very questionable materials isn’t gonna happen until we’ve been on Mars for some time. The dust hazard and especially radiation issues make living there problematic – one can’t. Going underground works but the energy required – please. Mars is not a place anyone should consider as a place one can live. We have a great planet here and we can’t even fucking take care of it. Mars bullshit is exactly that.
MattF
@schrodingers_cat: There are lots of possible reasons for that. Defense lawyers are unhappy when they discover that you have a law-enforcement officer in your family– one of my FBI-agent cousin’s duties is to keep me off juries.
Jack the Second
@Elizabelle: Eh, a lot of pigs are assholes, just morally reprehensible. Xenophobic, greedy, bullying anyone weaker or smaller than they are, cannibalistic if the opportunity presents. I mean, #NotAllPigs, but in my experience statistically you shouldn’t feel too bad.
MattF
@Jack the Second: So, ‘tasty’ is just a bonus.
r€nato
if anybody has covered this already, apologies in advance… but re: the Mars colony… other than the already-covered issues regarding drastically life-shortening effects of exposure to galactic radiation, how long do these fools think they will live without the availability of a modern medical infrastructure? I would think they’ve planned for a medic (maybe…), but once you get past anything much more complex than setting a broken limb, you’re fucked. I don’t know what they’re going to do for food, either. You probably can’t grow crops in that soil, even if you establish a base near a water source.
germy
@Jack the Second:
Wait… there are republican pigs?
Citizen_X
@Cermet: LOL what? I said research stations, not colonies. Like Antarctica. (Again, nobody’s moving there.) And sure, go underground, into lava tubes. We’ll need to develop that capacity for utilizing lava tubes on the Moon, too. And power? Use a reactor. All these technologies, including in situ utilization for fuel, water, and construction materials, are the subject of ongoing research and development.
Are you serious about living on Earth? Then that will require understanding this planet, which requires understanding others. And that requires human researchers, picking up where the robots leave off and doing far more than they can do.
JimV
When my friend Mario retired, several years ahead of me, for the first week or so when his wife went anywhere he went with her. Then one day as he was sitting in the living room, his wife walked in, in her coat and carrying her purse, and announced, “I’m going to the hair-dresser and then shopping and I’m going ALONE.”
The biggest change for me was that, aside from an attack by a bee hive when I was six and annual checkups at the GE clinic, I had never been to a doctor. Since going on Medicare (fortunately) I have had two operations and it’s one darn thing after another, plus five pills a day. I don’t expect to see much more than 75, but expect I’ll be glad to go, when the time comes. If I get a chance on my deathbed, I might tell all my Republican/conservative/evangelical family that damn it, they should have listened to me. Or not, it probably wouldn’t do any good.
tybee
@germy: …all pigs. or the converse.
Elizabelle
@Jack the Second: LOL.
@germy: Good point about the lab-grown meats.
Brachiator
@Cermet:
Wow. Missed a lot of this fun morning Mars discussion.
I agree with you. Colonization, apart from more robot landings, is very unlikely.
On the other hand, I think there will be a lot more creativity in the design and deployment of robots.
The next Mars mission will deploy a drone designed to fly in the weaker Martian atmosphere.
J R in WV
I retired 10 years ago, at the end of 2008. I loved my job, but it was frustrating and tiring. I was a software developer that graduated from coding to analysis and design into project management and then manager of the software development group.
Since middle management of the agency wasn’t particularly interested in good clean data it was a battle implementing software requirements to keep data in sync with the regs and law. We did have FOIA requirements, which meant we provided data to everyone who asked.
People who are scientists feel like they can develop software and databases for their research produced information, and in some ways they can. But when they use a database like MS Access, which is NOT intended for serious support, and then spend years filling it with way way more data than it is able to handle…!! So that was a battle hard won and unappreciated.
And I liked many of the people who cared about the job, even some of the people who were less than committed to the mission were nice people, fun to work with. So I miss the people. I miss the fulfilling parts of the job. But I love sleeping in after reading until 2 am.
We live in the woods, and see the wildlife out the windows. The neighbors are old friends, since the 70s !! Some helped us move into the old farmhouse we rehabbed for shelter.
Retirement is good.
cleosmom
The women were the adults in the room.
As usual.
JaneE
@Steeplejack (phone): His age was the first thing I thought of. Most astronauts are younger, and don’t have 18 months in space, and will come back to earth where they can get support and medical care and everything else they might need. He will be pushing 70 when they arrive and need to “establish” their colony. The second thing I thought of was Roanoke.
Original Lee
@Amir Khalid: A friend of a friend is one of the 100, and we had a chat about it last summer. (His comments about The Martian film adaptation were pretty amusing.) Apparently there is no real age cutoff – the criteria so far are more about being healthy and retaining mental flexibility and being compatible with your team. He was surprised to have made it as far as he did, since he is middle-aged, but he must test well on the personality and adaptability tests they are using, and he’s in pretty good shape. He says he is matched up with a team and that the next hoop to jump through is a series of situational evaluations with his team. The 25 teams will be ranked based on a number of criteria, and obviously, the top team will go first. His wife was pretty pissed off with him when he applied, but she has gradually come to the conclusion that he will never actually go before he dies, so she’s mostly OK with it now. His kids get apprehensive when he goes in for another round of testing, but I guess the timeline extensions are making them feel better.