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That seems like a much harder sell -- telling people they are going to be the first people to colonize another planet is exciting. Sending them on a sightseeing

That seems like a much harder sell -- telling people they are going to be the first people to colonize another planet is exciting. Sending them on a sightseeing cruise around the moon (without even stopping) seems less interesting since even if the trip is "free" (paid by others), it's going to be risky.

Alterlife 8y ago
I had the money and it was relatively safe, I would jump at the opportunity. I got my son a telescope last year and we have been watching the moon whenever we get a chance. It is another world.
- Johnny555 8y ago
  Yes, of course, if it was safe and affordable lots of people would do it -- but you're not going to get safe and affordable space travel from an early spacefaring startup.
onion2k 8y ago
Mars One wasn't seriously aiming to colonize Mars. It was a glorified suicide mission. That isn't appealing to most people, especially compared to a trip round the moon you'd actually have a good chance of surviving.
- Johnny555 8y ago
  Mars One didn't need to appeal to "most people", just enough people to fill their open seats. And they needed enough people to support their broadcast/merchandising rights based funding model, but I'm sure there'd be a lot of public interest in following a group of future mars colonists through training and the journey to Mars -- and I'm many potential viewers would be drawn in by the risks of the mission. They claim to have had over 200K applications though I'm sure many of those people would have backed out if they were actually selected and thought through the ramifications of a one-way trip to another planet. I think I'd be more likely to apply for a Mars One mission than a trip around the moon. After the moon trip you're back home again without much to show for the trip but the pictures... it seems a little like taking a bus tour where you're not allowed out of the bus and it takes 3 days to get there... and you didn't even have a unique experience since hundreds or even thousands of people did the same trip. But since space travel is still in its infancy, there's still a significant chance that you won't survive the trip. The Mars trip had a much higher chance of failure (and no chance of return), but at least then you're part of a small group of people who are actually colonizing another planet. I think it's unfair to call it a "glorified suicide mission", since the goal was to survive, even if there was no way to come back again.
  - onion2k 8y ago
    After the moon trip you're back home again without much to show for the trip but the pictures... Literally every astronaut who's been in to space says it profoundly changed them as a person.
    - evanb 8y ago
      Citation needed! Consider, eg. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/655/the-not-so-great-unknown/act-one-4 https://www.thisamericanlife.org/655/the-not-so-great-unknow...
    - Johnny555 8y ago
      I have no doubt that it did - they are part of a very elite group of people doing something that literally no one else has ever done before and few could hope to do. But when space travel is more commercialized and commonplace and anyone that can come up with $100K can buy a ticket for a trip around the moon and your instagram feed is full of people's snapshots from their moon trip, will it still have that mystique? My grandmother was very proud of her first (and only) trip to Hawaii back in the late 1940's, she literally saved pennies over years to afford it, and said it felt like going to another world and she was a celebrity when she returned home to her small town. And even decades later she tells the stories from that trip (her only significant travel). But I've been to Hawaii about a dozen times, and while I enjoy it, it's not a profound experience that I'd save up for years and few people even care to hear about my trip when I come home, they just want to know if I brought them Macadamia nuts (the same ones I can buy at Costco!)
      - onion2k 8y ago
        If you read the autobiographies of astronauts they talk about being in space as the thing that changed them and how they see the world, not the prestige of being an astronaut or act of going on a rocket. Edgar Mitchell (Apollo 14) said "From out there on the Moon, international politics look so petty." I imagine that change in perspective is what going in to space would give you.

Alterlife 8y ago

I had the money and it was relatively safe, I would jump at the opportunity. I got my son a telescope last year and we have been watching the moon whenever we get a chance. It is another world.

Johnny555 8y ago
Yes, of course, if it was safe and affordable lots of people would do it -- but you're not going to get safe and affordable space travel from an early spacefaring startup.

onion2k 8y ago

Mars One wasn't seriously aiming to colonize Mars. It was a glorified suicide mission. That isn't appealing to most people, especially compared to a trip round the moon you'd actually have a good chance of surviving.

Johnny555 8y ago
Mars One didn't need to appeal to "most people", just enough people to fill their open seats. And they needed enough people to support their broadcast/merchandising rights based funding model, but I'm sure there'd be a lot of public interest in following a group of future mars colonists through training and the journey to Mars -- and I'm many potential viewers would be drawn in by the risks of the mission. They claim to have had over 200K applications though I'm sure many of those people would have backed out if they were actually selected and thought through the ramifications of a one-way trip to another planet. I think I'd be more likely to apply for a Mars One mission than a trip around the moon. After the moon trip you're back home again without much to show for the trip but the pictures... it seems a little like taking a bus tour where you're not allowed out of the bus and it takes 3 days to get there... and you didn't even have a unique experience since hundreds or even thousands of people did the same trip. But since space travel is still in its infancy, there's still a significant chance that you won't survive the trip. The Mars trip had a much higher chance of failure (and no chance of return), but at least then you're part of a small group of people who are actually colonizing another planet. I think it's unfair to call it a "glorified suicide mission", since the goal was to survive, even if there was no way to come back again.
- onion2k 8y ago
  After the moon trip you're back home again without much to show for the trip but the pictures... Literally every astronaut who's been in to space says it profoundly changed them as a person.
  - evanb 8y ago
    Citation needed! Consider, eg. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/655/the-not-so-great-unknown/act-one-4 https://www.thisamericanlife.org/655/the-not-so-great-unknow...
  - Johnny555 8y ago
    I have no doubt that it did - they are part of a very elite group of people doing something that literally no one else has ever done before and few could hope to do. But when space travel is more commercialized and commonplace and anyone that can come up with $100K can buy a ticket for a trip around the moon and your instagram feed is full of people's snapshots from their moon trip, will it still have that mystique? My grandmother was very proud of her first (and only) trip to Hawaii back in the late 1940's, she literally saved pennies over years to afford it, and said it felt like going to another world and she was a celebrity when she returned home to her small town. And even decades later she tells the stories from that trip (her only significant travel). But I've been to Hawaii about a dozen times, and while I enjoy it, it's not a profound experience that I'd save up for years and few people even care to hear about my trip when I come home, they just want to know if I brought them Macadamia nuts (the same ones I can buy at Costco!)
    - onion2k 8y ago
      If you read the autobiographies of astronauts they talk about being in space as the thing that changed them and how they see the world, not the prestige of being an astronaut or act of going on a rocket. Edgar Mitchell (Apollo 14) said "From out there on the Moon, international politics look so petty." I imagine that change in perspective is what going in to space would give you.