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Asked by marsisthebest:} to John, Laura, Luke, Rob, Ruth on 17 Jun 2016. This question was also asked by I want want Rob back!.
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Laura Finney answered on 17 Jun 2016:
I think it might be possible! There is a mission called Mars One where they are going to send people on a one way ticket to mars to see if they can survive as a big experiment.
So we are already trying it!
check out the link below
http://www.mars-one.com/
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Robert Williams answered on 17 Jun 2016:
Yes – but we don’t have the right technology yet.
The most likely place to go to is Mars because it is the closest earth-like body to Earth. Venus is a definite No-no. Mercury has big problems with it being quite close to the Sun.
However I think that we should or could consider that the next step after Mars will be Ganymede of Jupiter – leaving Europa free for robotic explorers to investigate – sorry if that is shades of 2062 – Odessey 3.
Alternatively one of the icy Moons of Saturn look interesting -and of course you would have an amazing view of Saturn’s rings.
One place not to go for humans is Jupiter’s innermost moon Io.
However a trip to a suitable asteroid might also be very worthwhile simply because of the potentially massive inventory of mineral resources and ‘ice’.
Comets have too low gravity for it to be safe to move to. -
Luke Williams answered on 19 Jun 2016:
It is most certainly possible. Far as I am aware the trip could be made to Mars right now, but the issue is keeping people alive for any period of time once they land is the fairly substantial problem. It is also far too expensive.
There is also a great deal not known about the effects of long term space exposure, which is why there have been experiments done on astronauts on the ISS, particularly a year long tour to see what the effect on the body is.
What is certain though, is that once you arrived on Mars, for example, you would not be able to return to Earth due to the effect of Earth’s higher gravity. I don’t know the exact timings, but due to the length of the trip to and from Mars, I don’t know how long you would be able to stay on Mars and survive a return to Earth.
The length of the trip would also be a huge risk as well. Traveling in space is incredibly dangerous as you might expect, so there would be a very high risk of failure, which is where more investigations are being done. With a new type of craft, probably insulated with water panels, would reduce the risk of damage. Carrying enough supplies for the trip, including fuel, would be incredibly difficult too. It may be necessary to actually construct spacecraft at an orbital shipyard, but then you get into further problems about construction materials. A happy middleground may involve constructing the craft much like an IKEA table, flatpacked and shipped to space to be built there. That would allow for smaller shipments. Then again, how safe would that be? A great many questions!
As it happens, this just popped up in my facebook feed, which is handy:
http://www.popsci.com/nasa-has-some-cool-recruiting-posters-for-mars-mission
http://www.popsci.com/lockheed-martin-aiming-to-put-astronauts-in-mars-orbit-by-2028?src=offramp&loc=region-2&lnk=txt
http://www.popsci.com/article/science/why-thousands-people-are-willing-die-mars?src=offramp&loc=region-2&lnk=txt
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-10/%E2%80%98hundred-year-starship%E2%80%99-could-bring-humans-other-worlds-and-leave-them-there-foreverMy personal take is that I would love to go to Mars, even if it were a one way trip. Being part of a colony is something that appeals to me, particularly if I were able to be a researcher offworld, that really would be a dream position for me.
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