With all its risks and the time it would take, if you could, would you want to be the first person on mars?
606332
At first, I thought, 'sure' but then I realized that we know enough about Mars and after the excitement of lift off and weightlessness, I would be bored to death traveling for months, walking around in a Mars-suit all day while there, traveling for months to get back with a few oxidized rocks... \n\nSo, just save me a ticket to the ISS and I will be happy to go and spend a few weeks touring around this ol' blue planet.
868746
Only if he can guarantee my safety, life, well-being, living needs (including toiletry, food, waste disposal, and clothing) and that I will return to my planet EXACTLY as I left it - with no genetic tampering or modifying, and NO IMPLANTS.......\n\n\n\n(and of course I'd have to have my wife's permission......)
459238
i want to be an astronaut!
72063
They already do. Do you mean, inter-planetary flights? And if so, how far away? Pluto? Nuh-uh. Mars? Not necessarily a bad idea. It all depends on how far away the mission crew is to be sent, and how long the duration of the journey is to be. If the crew were to find themselves in an emergency, they would of course have to be more resilient and capable of quick thinking because Houston would not be of any help to them.
1122592
That is why we should TERRAFORM MARS!!!\n\nAs a jumping point and practice for moving out into the stars!!!
73036
to be the first one to change the ways of the world
366690
My friends Emma and Tessa say yes, of course.\n\nI'm not sure, myself.  I'd have to leave all my friends and loved ones behind here.  \n\nBut I'd like to start my life over in about 1,000 years, or right before the sun goes out, to see what the world is like before it happens in like seven billion years.
1029588
If we waited for every problem on earth to be solved before we explore Mars, or advance any other scientific project of importance, we'd never do anything. Ideally, the poor health system in America would be resolved AND space exploration would advance. (and pigs might fly :-)
238222
I am the first person answering this question. By making me the first person, I highly doubt it would become the featured question.
37787
are you living in Mars??
584481
It might be possible although it'll be a lot more expensive than building space settlements and there is also the issue of the lower gravity (we don't know how that will affect the colonists).\n\nIf the gravity issue is solved we might be able to colonise the planet in that timeframe.  The materials needed are mostly there but we'd have to bring a lot of technology and softland it on Mars.  This will include mining technology, fabrication technology and power sources (probably nuclear).\n\nWater could be a problem but we should be able to import it from asteroids and comets so if there isn't any left on Mars it can be obtained from elsewhere without too much trouble.
336878
Manning Mars is not due to any political reasons like the same for moon during cold war.\nEstablishing human civilization in Mars is very necessary for saving homo sapiens, given earth can face disaster at any time.\nSo not only rich, scientists, people from all spheres of life will be required to go to Mars for humanity to prosper there.\nIt seems another 20-25 years will be taken (based on various articles I have read).
941580
If you have ever taken a trip to a new place you would understand.  If your passion is Geology and you enjoy going in the field to see and touch the different formations, or if you enjoy Biology and you enjoy collecting new samples to perhaps see an animal that no person has ever seen, or if you are an adventurer who climbs a mountain just because it is there, then you can imagine the lure of space and interplanetary exploration.  This is the passion that drives NASA and our Astronaut corps.  Live to pursue the goals of your dreams, let them drive YOU!\nI would go to where other sentient being are.  I would want to learn about how they see their own social issues and share how we approach ours.  I do believe that one day Humankind will live just like Gene Roddenberry foresaw and portrayed in Star Trek.
1008342
First we would need a secure dome to live in, to retain the air we need to breathe, and a way of removing the carbon-dioxide from it - plants are good at this - and we would need to keep the dome heated, as Mars' warmest day is colder than Earths' coldest, I remember reading.  We would have to use hydroponics to grow food, and meat would be a luxury of the past. Expect an awful bland diet for years. Gravity is something like 2/3rds of ours, so our activity in the dome would be pretty easy, but you'd need to learn how to sprint again, if you were into running, and imagine the hundred metres being run in not just under ten seconds, but perhaps six!  Mars would actually be a great place for the elderly to retire to - less fall injuries, less heart stress.  Children born on Mars would grow very tall, perhaps damaging them - tall has its' downsides for humans, particularly back and circulatory troubles.  Nuclear bombs detonated out on the Martian plains would generate enough heat to release the water scientists tend to agree is frozen in there, in the soil and rock, and if large panels of black material were laid out, their albedo would catch and retain heat.  We need a thick, oxygen rich atmosphere.  Mars' is very thin, and with little oxygen.  Such 'Terra-forming' (making Earth-like) would be a huge undertaking.\n  So there you are, stuck in your dome, bored, hurt yourself badly from running at 40mph, vegetarian, with nine-foot tall kids, and Grandpa is 168.  Perhaps death would be preferable...
566537
I would have time to land on my feet. I would just feel an adrenaline surge!
1092064
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this, but it takes a *lot* longer than a few hundred years (a few generations) to result in a new species.\n\nOn top of this, the environment for colonists on Mars would not be that radically different from the earth's environment.  Life support would have to maintain the same atmosphere, temperature, radiation, environments, the same food and water requirements etc.  Probably the main difference would be the much smaller gravity on Mars, which would badly deteriorate human muscles and skeletons unless some other measures were put into place.
440069
you would have to learn programming first.