So this guy enters a bus and starts threatening everyone, I'll integrate you! I'll differentiate you! Everyone promptly runs out the emergency exits after hearing this fearing the insanity of the man. One person however stayed behind. He was threatened again, get off the bus! I'll differentiate you! I'll integrate you! The lone man then said... "Go ahead... I'm e^x."
Errr yeah Zairair, you must be Pakistanese or Iraqui, because only those ppl make jokes about suicide bombers in a bus threatening to castrate ppl if they don't get off: get off the bus! I had a bad day! i'll blow this shit up right now, f-u son! I said get off the bus! *bomber takes out detanator and shoves it up his ass* OK! Now Ze Detonotar is zup me azz, NOW GET OFF ZE BUS before i get zreally mad!''
For those of you whose knowledge of Science and Space comes from Star Trek or Star Wars, a few points to note. 1. A trip to Mars will take about 3 years. That's three years spent in a little capsule with no possibility of stepping outside for fresh air, no turning back if something goes wrong, no relief from obnoxious crew members, no medical attention if someone gets an inflamed appendix or other medical ailment. Imagine an Apollo 13 scenario. 2. All supplies will have to be taken on board the ship and recycled, like fresh air and water. Food could be grown and human wastes could be recycled into fertilizer to grow said food. If this system got out of step, the crew risks starving to death. Also, hygene would be an issue: how to keep fresh water available for cleaning? Also, fart gases would not be automatically blown away like they are on Earth so the smell after a few months would be interesting (and carry an explosive risk). 3. Mars atmosphere is 1/50 the density of Earth's. That means you cannot just get out of the ship and walk around without a full spacesuit. Nobody knows if spacesuits will survive 2 years or more needed. If the suit or ship springs a leak, you are doomed. 4. Anyone who compares a Mars mission with Columbus discovering America is just plain deluded. Columbus arrived and found everything from food to nubile young girls just waiting for him. Mars doesn't even have air, no food can be grown there, and there probably doesn't even have life. (If there is life throw in plague risk.) America offered huge possibilies for immediate profit and sending more men there was easy. Mars risks bankrupting even America just to get maybe 10 guys there. How much to send an entire convoy? 5. Mars won't solve Earth's population or environment problems. It would take over 100 years to terraform the planet, be the most expensive human endeavor ever, and is not guaranteed to work. Then there's the cost of getting the rest of the people up there. In the end I have to ask the question : We spent the last 2000 years destroying this planet, why won't we do the same to Mars?
The ancient Romans had a tradition: whenever one of their engineers constructed an arch, as the capstone was hoisted into place, the engineer assumed accountability for his work in the most profound way possible: he stood under the arch.
