Mars

     A Dutch company, Mars One, wants to establish a colony on Mars.  The project starts now and, after ten years of training and preparation, will send the first four person team on a one way trip to the red planet.  Thereafter, they plan to send additional crews every two years.  They plan to use media exposure to fund the project.  It will be like Big Brother, Survivor, and The Truman Show rolled into one.  I don't know about this.  http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/upshot/mars-one-one-way-ticket-red-planet-192011042.html
     Where would they find people willing to go on what amounts to a suicide mission?  They are looking for people to commit the rest of their lives to the project.  I think making the commitment to live out life on Mars would take more faith than entering the priesthood.  Only younger people have this sort of mindset.  How many would drop out of the ten year training program when their ideas change?  I think older people, who have left the "Angry Young Man" phase of life http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLLYa5LdUeE would have little interest in going to Mars.  Maybe they could recruit prisoners.  But, I don't know about that.
     Will women be on these space missions? You know what happens when men and women share close quarters.  They make babies.  How would they handle the little Martians?  I suppose they would all be home schooled.  Would the grandparents back on Earth get up in arms and demand that they kids be returned to their custody on Earth?  How tough would it be to raise a child on Mars?  I've heard that children use emotional blackmail on parents by threatening to do things like hold their breath until they die.  Here on the blue planet we call their bluff and tell them to right ahead and try to stop breathing.  What if a child on Mars threatens to go outside and breathe Martian air if the parents don't get them the latest spacesuit with the neon colors and the flashing lights in the boot heels?  That child would have to be locked down for his own protection.  Again, I don't know this.
     Would the whole adventure really make good television?  A documentary about the preparations for the trip might be interesting.  The journey to Mars takes seven months.  After the initial televised space capsule tour, I doubt there would be much of interest to broadcast.  Bas Lansdorp of Mars One says that the Martian experience "would be 'real' reality TV."  He seems to think there will be excitement and challenges aplenty that will make interesting viewing - stuff that will keep the audience at home coming back for more.  I don't know about that.  What if someone realizes they made a bad choice, and they want to come home, but can't?  What if this drives them to suicide?  I did a little reading up on Mars.  The planet has no global magnetic field and no atmosphere.  There is no shield on Mars against cosmic and solar radiation.  Without powerful shields against the radiation on Mars' surface, human DNA could be damaged.  This would probably cause illness and early death.  Who wants to watch someone suffer and die?  If the whole project goes to Hell in a hand basket, will the Mars One organization face lawsuits filed by everyone from relatives left behind to viewers traumatized by the broadcasts?
     I'll be seventy years old in 2023.  I'm not going to watch The Mars One Experiment (or whatever they decide to call it) when it's on television.  This, I do know.