About four decades ago, Elton John sang, “Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids ... In fact, it’s cold as hell.” As Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, this statement remains true today. So, when the first human visitors land there some decades from now, they will probably have left their kids at home on Earth – and they will probably never see them again.
I am not predicting that the first manned mission to the planet Mars will fail. I am merely predicting that the first trip to Mars will be a one-way trip.
The brave souls who volunteer to take on this expedition will probably do so realizing that their lives will never be the same. No more blue and green Earth. They will most likely live out the remainder of their lives trying to survive on the inhospitable planet, while using any extra available time to establish some kind of home base for future human visitors to make use of.
Why will the first Mars settlers never walk among us again? It is for the same reason that sending people to Mars is such a challenging endeavour in the first place: it takes a lot of fuel. If we send the spacecraft with the quantity of fuel it will require to eventually lift off of Mars and return towards Earth, the entire original payload will be simply too heavy.
Thus, if a manned mission to Mars is to occur before an alternative method of space travel, such as the space elevator, is implemented, the trip will be one-way. In all likelihood, an adventure to Mars will precede the space elevator’s construction. Therefore, NASA had better start digging through its potential list of candidates, and identify anyone that is qualified to undertake the mission, comfortable with the concept of never returning to Earth, and also mentally sane. The list will be a short one.
