Some years ago, G.W.Bush (yep, President Bush) declared that the USA would be working to place a man on Mars (a planet) on a not too distant future. Okay, man has already set foot on the Moon and brought back some space garbage, etc. I think one of the astronauts found a chunk of an asteroid..
Now, old G.W., has got me thinking about the first man to land on Mars. What do you think about it? The whole idea does sound like a big challenge, but if we can send a man to Disneyland, then I am certain that the world can put a man on Mars, too.
Thinking about it one gets wild ideas about how it would be to ride a spaceship for so many weeks, and months with just a few other astronauts. Who would volunteer for such a long and boring ride? There are many unknowns about the trip. And I’m certain that nobody has thought about a return trip, so the crew would need to think about staying on Mars for the rest of their natural lives. Yes, and I am certain that only gay men would be comfortable to be away from women, and to live with other men.
I mention men, and gay men because I am certain that even G.W. would not agree to permit a female astronaut to make the trip to Mars. Again, I say this because at the present females may not work in combat in the military. And likewise, although there are females permitted on ‘safe’ trips to the space station, female astronauts would not be permitted to make a dangerous and uncertain trip to Mars.
Although, I would think that if this were truly a mission of discovery and one to break new barriers then I would include females on board. One possiblity would be for the females to make babies enroute, and once on Mars in order to populate the planet Mars. Of course the females would also serve to keep the heterosexual male astronauts company.
Again there are very many unknowns about a Mars exploration. And from what I have learned from previous expeditions to Mars most of the missions have been lost either upon landing, or enroute. And at present there is no guarantee that a manned ship could safely land on Mars.
If, I were in charge of such a mission, I would set a modest plan. Before I would commit men to land on the surface of Mars, I would establish an orbiting space station to serve as a base of operations. The space station could serve as my supply store, and a command cernter. And to be frank humans are very good a establishing space stations around a planet so let us stick to something that we are good at doing.
Humans are not perfect when it comes to safely landing a spacecraft. Okay, you may say that many shuttles have landed safely, but have you forgotten that two shuttles have been lost? One was lost on take off and the other was lost while attempting to make re-entry. No. I say that mankind needs to work much harder to learn how to safely deliver a crew into space, or onto the surface of a planet be it Earth or Mars.
Okay, so the idea of gay astronauts may not be popular and I only suggested it because men or women who do decide that they want to be space explorers must confront the notion of being alone for an extended period of time. And most of the people that I know, on Earth, are married. The reason that they are married is that they do not wish to live alone. If there are better ideas I certainly want to hear them. And as for G.W., I am very certain that he would never volunteer to be the first ex-president to visit Mars.
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