Never looking back

Article: A One-Way Ticket to Mars

Human space travel is so expensive and so dangerous that we are going to need novel, even extreme solutions if we really want to expand the range of human civilization beyond our own planet. To boldly go where no one has gone before does not require coming home again.

A really interesting piece on some of the problems associated with sending a maned mission to Mars. The point raised is why is it so important to bring the astronauts home again? Plenty of people are willing to go even with no chance of ever returning.

Thinking about this put me in a highly reflective mood. In order to go where we’ve never gone before, do what we’ve never done before and truly change the world, maybe we need to take steps so drastic that the possibility of return doesn’t exist at all. Success and failure measured in the legacy we leave behind.