Going, but Not Coming Back

Would you accept a mission from which you knew you were not coming back?

In the 2015 movie, The Martian, Matt Damon plays a scientist who gets stranded on Mars during the first manned mission to the red planet. He uses his training, his wits and a lot of perseverance to survive while his friends work to bring him back home to Earth.

Imagine, however, if the mission had been to go to Mars with no intention of ever coming back! Imagine leaving behind everything and everyone you've ever known, including spouse and family, to go to a planet where you'll spend the rest of your days living (and surely dying) in a hostile environment and no scenery but red rocks and dust everywhere.

Sounds like a depressing movie scenario, but it's an idea that's actually being proposed by a Dutch nonprofit organization called Mars One. The idea is to put four people on Mars as an initial colony in the year 2030, followed by new crews every two years. Mars will be their permanent home where they'll live, work and study the planet for the benefit of science, exploration and the...