Panelists answered the following: If offered the chance, would you spend a year or more living on Mars, assuming at least six months of travel to get there?
Nants Foley: “I would so not go Mars! I saw the movie Gravity, and it totally scared me. Also I would miss my family too much. Now the moon, that might be all right. But Mars? No, thanks.”
Mary Zanger: “No. I am already riding a wonderful space ship. This one is called planet Earth. As we travel the vastness of space with limited supplies of food, water and air we experience shrinking resources, loss of plant and animal life, and the floods, fires and droughts of climate change. The problem is we are doing nothing at all about our precarious predicament. So I am much more interested in surviving this trip than the one to Mars.”
Marty Richman: “No, while the idea fascinates me – I was a science fiction fanatic when I was young – I’m too old and I now live a seductively comfortable life with my wife and pets. Hell, I don’t even want to go on vacation because I’m on vacation every day. If I did go you’d have to bring along an entire medical clinic for my exclusive use. Why didn’t you ask me when I was in my early twenties? I would certainly have signed on then.”
Ruth Erickson: “No. Though I am adventurous, this is far beyond my comfort level. The unknown, cramped quarters, and lack of human companionship, would convince me not to go.”
Richard Place: “It sounds like it would be fun if it wasn’t brought to you by the same government that brought you Obamacare.”
Richard Herrera: “No. It is tempting but I am happy on earth with my family.”
