Asexual in "If I die on Mars" documentary

[Tiffanyy]

"If I die on Mars" is a short documentary in which we see interviews to some of the people that volunteered to take part in a one-way manned trip to Mars planned for 2024 (more info here).

They are part of a group of 100 candidates that will further be reduced through selection processes.

I decided to post this here because one of them, Ryan, is asexual.

Here's the video (minute 1:44):

Here's another video in which he mentions that he's asexual (around minute 2:11):

I don't know if that is relevant, but it's nice to think that there's a possibility (at least a tiny one) for an asexual to go to Mars. What I like about that idea is that, in the case he gets to participate in the mission, he would be very famous, so people will listen if he spreads the word about asexuality. However, the future of the mission is not certain (it seems).

I made too many assumptions, haha... well, let me dream.

I think I made some grammatical mistakes, sorry for that. English is not my first language.

[Philip027]

It's interesting stuff, whether or not an asexual gets to go :O

Also, your writing was pretty much perfect; try as I might I couldn't find any grammatical error. >_>

[Vega91]

Awesome! I'm honestly not sure that a mission could be even close to ready by 2024, but I can always hope. Just because it would be so cool that we, as a species, could have spread beyond our planet.

[crinklyace]

I know death is a certainty for everyone... but I really feel people who want to go to Mars to die have a screw loose.

He seems like a cool and animated person! :-) Thank you for sharing those links.

[SecretLibrary]

Crinklyphotographer - as you say, you have to die somewhere. I think it'd be cool to be one of the first to die on mars. :) I didn't make it through the first cut, though.

I mean, yes, most authorities say that colonising the moon is an essential first step, and I think that the Mars One thing is kind of a sideshow - because, well, there aren't likely going to be the resources to support it or make it at all functional by 2024 - but if it gets people genuinely interested in exploring space, maybe it's worthwhile on those grounds.:) And even an unsuccessful mission could teach us a lot and push back the boundaries of the human experience.

[Vega91]

Crinklyphotographer - as you say, you have to die somewhere. I think it'd be cool to be one of the first to die on mars. :)

You'd be remembered, at least. Most of us Earthbound people won't be remembered by the general public after our deaths, but the names of the first settlers on Mars will be household names for generations.

I don't think I could handle spending the rest of my life living practically alone in a tiny house. I guess I'll just have to hope in reincarnation, maybe one day we can just hop into a spaceship and cruise by the rings of Saturn. :D

[Scottthespy]

His chances are actually pretty good, especially if he's aromantic. From what I understand, not many people are going on the mission, so its going to be a very small group...romantic people have a higher chance of feeling loneliness in a long period spent with a small group because they seek both friendship and romance, and friendship is easier. Some one who's content with a few good friends could be friends with most of the rest of the crew and be fine with that, unless he's also super sociable, but odds are people who sign up for this aren't the party hearty type. A when they do psych evaluations to determine who'll best handle the loneliness of a very small group of people being the ONLY people you'll see for the rest of your life, Ryan may have an advantage over the others.

[That asexual guy]

Cool

[jimerman]

i love how he only masturbated to lower the rate of prostate cancer.

[Philip027]

I know death is a certainty for everyone... but I really feel people who want to go to Mars to die have a screw loose.

I don't really think they're going there specifically to die (it's a rather expensive and groundbreaking endeavor and I doubt they just want to recruit a bunch of Death Seekers for it), but when you're going millions of miles away on an explicitly-stated one-way trip, the presumption that you will die either at or on the way to your destination is kinda easy to make.

[Guest]

They already know there is no life on Mars and that Mars is utterly unable to sustain human life, don't they? (it's too cold, etc) Seems like a total waste of time and money.

EDIT: Especially considering these idiots are going there to die lol.. Death is literally the only option regardless of how it happens (and it certainly won't be of old age) ..it's like a huge condoned suicide mission with utterly no purpose other than entertainment (yep I get they say they want to colonize Mars but you won't get far sending four people there to die lol) so not only is it stupid it's also a huge waste of money that could be spent actually dealing with issues we have here on Earth. Ridiculous.

[LadyWallflower]

They already know there is no life on Mars and that Mars is utterly unable to sustain human life, don't they? (it's too cold, etc) Seems like a total waste of time and money.

EDIT: Especially considering these idiots are going there to die lol.. Death is literally the only option regardless of how it happens (and it certainly won't be of old age) ..it's like a huge condoned suicide mission with utterly no purpose other than entertainment (yep I get they say they want to colonize Mars but you won't get far sending four people there to die lol) so not only is it stupid it's also a huge waste of money that could be spent actually dealing with issues we have here on Earth. Ridiculous.

I think perhaps you are being a bit harsh. People probably felt the same way about going into the moon. But by venturing into space we have made so many scientific discoveries. Who knows how science could expand by people researching and doing experiments on Mars? Also they aren't going to there to die. Will they end up dying on Mars, considering the length of times it takes to get there and back? Probably. But they aren't going as a fancy way to commit suicide. They are going there for science.

And it is so cool that an asexual could possibly be involved.

[Dodecahedron314]

They already know there is no life on Mars and that Mars is utterly unable to sustain human life, don't they? (it's too cold, etc) Seems like a total waste of time and money.

EDIT: Especially considering these idiots are going there to die lol.. Death is literally the only option regardless of how it happens (and it certainly won't be of old age) ..it's like a huge condoned suicide mission with utterly no purpose other than entertainment (yep I get they say they want to colonize Mars but you won't get far sending four people there to die lol) so not only is it stupid it's also a huge waste of money that could be spent actually dealing with issues we have here on Earth. Ridiculous.

1. They're not *just* sending four people, it's just that they're sending four people at a time. The idea is that once all the kinks get worked out of the transportation, the habitats, and so forth, there should be a new mission going up with four more people every two years, from what I recall from my research (I write a little science newsletter thing and we did an article about this right after the Orion launch).

2. Um, technically, death is the only option for pretty much anything, if you think about it. We're all going to die someday, there's no question about that. So why not make something of what life you have and help in the effort to advance society in the long term?

3. It's not a waste of money. Are there things that it could be spent on here on Earth? Yes, absolutely, that is undeniable. But just think about not only all the scientific advancements that have been achieved by humanity's presence in space, but even all of the little things you wouldn't normally consider for space missions that can end up being completely revolutionary on Earth--there are so many of them that we still use today that just came out of the Apollo lunar program, and that was almost 50 years ago by now. And that's just the physical benefits, completely ignoring the unimaginably powerful inspiration that will undoubtedly come from all of this. How many scientists can you think of off the top of your head, or even just quickly Google, who were inspired by the space race? And we didn't even stay on the moon, we just jumped around a bit, picked up some rocks, took some pictures, and came back. We spent a total of 3 days, 8 hours, and 16 minutes on the moon over the course of the program, not counting time to fly there or even time inside the landing module!

Now, I'm going to do some math here. About 0.42% of Americans are scientists right now, according to Wolfram Alpha. About 23.4% of people alive in 1969, or roughly 846 million people, were aged between 5 and 15, where they could be influenced in their career choices by something like the moon landing. It's been said that roughly a fifth of the population of the world watched the first lunar landing, so if we take that figure and multiply it by the number of children between 5 and 15, we get about 169 million kids watching the moon landing. If we extrapolate current American figures, approximately 0.42% of them became scientists, or roughly 712,289 people. Say half of them were driven to science because of their experience watching the landing, so 356,144 people. But there were people being inspired by the Apollo missions for the entirety of the program, which had all its landings between 1969 and 1972, so for everyone who missed the first landing but got into it later, as well as the kids who grew up to be old enough to understand it all a year or two later, we can probably add back another 25% of current scientists who watched the landing, so that gives us 534,217 people. Now, multiply that by any reasonable life expectancy on Mars assuming the technology is worked out but we don't anticipate some things--say, even just 5-10 years for a pessimistic estimate, which will be anywhere from 545.7 to 1091 times as great as our time actually on the moon, doing moon stuff, which is what our intrepid Mars colonists will be doing the Mars equivalent of with the vast majority of their time rather than just a mission here and a mission there, but even just counting the entirety of the program will still be 2.67 to 3.33 times longer, so let's say 3 for somewhere in the middle, giving us about 1.6 million people. Then very conservatively increase it by 50% again to account for the greater population of the world and the increased technological saturation that will allow more people to follow the mission. When all is said and done, that's around 2.4 MILLION people who have seen what the potential of the human race is and are inspired to become a part of it. That's enough to fuel another Renaissance or Enlightenment or Information Age dozens, if not hundreds of times over. It is impossible to overstate the importance of the impact that developments like this can have on people.

Sorry for writing a short novel in response, but as you can tell this is something I care about deeply, and when I get rattled, I get analytical. Really analytical.

[crinklyace]

To post or not to post, I REALLY don't mean to be a Debbie Downer....

As I type this, The Simpsons Tree House of Horror X is on, and Lisa and Marge are escaping to Mars. ;)

I'm not sure the human species deserves the right to trash another planet. I remember some survivor show a few years ago... they were on an uninhabited island. The presenter goes to the beach and proclaims, "I can use this [trash]." He went on to say, "one thing you can count on wherever you end up is that there is garbage."

Part of me hopes the mission fails. If this was a movie, we would be the "locusts" in Independence Day.

If it is successful, I expect once it's colonized, the planet would be reserved for "the beautiful people." Genetically/physically strong or wealthy. I really try to look on the bright side of things, I promise. But as much as I love every person I meet on an individual level, society does not impress me at large. You would not believe I do have a gift to see some inner beauty in every one I meet.

I'm not a tree-hugger, I just have a dim view on how people exploit resources.

[butterscotchwm]

I'm not sure the human species deserves the right to trash another planet.

Yeah, well... Who's gonna stop us? The inhabitants of Mars?

If anything, it would be better to trash Mars than it would be to trash Earth, considering that Earth can sustain life.

[Dodecahedron314]

Well, the Mars colony will almost certainly be mostly--if not entirely--focused on survival and science rather than consumerism and profit, at least in the early days when it's still getting established, so that's a start. They'll have to use every resource as efficiently as physically possible in order for there to be any chance of long term stability until there's more infrastructure up there and technology advances. That should cure any innate human tendency to mess everything up, hopefully. I get the feeling that for the foreseeable future, it's going to be a science outpost more than a thing for the rich and famous to traipse about on while we plebes are stuck on our home planet, because until it gets a lot more developed it's definitely not going to be anywhere near luxurious. It's the same reason why Antarctica isn't a huge vacation destination (at least not to my knowledge): cold, hard to get to, not much out there, and not easy living. But I'd go so far as to say that if we ever want to evolve past the obviously not all that great state that humanity as a whole is in right now (i.e. getting rid of diseases, poverty, wastefulness, hopefully conflict, all that good stuff) and actually have a shot at making something of ourselves in the grandest of grand schemes of things, interplanetary expansion is just going to have to be in there somewhere, especially with the rate at which we're turning the only currently habitable planet within reasonable distance into an uninhabitable one. It's a unifying force, a technological motivator, a survival strategy, and thensome. That's not just my idealism talking, everyone from Carl Sagan to Stephen Hawking has said it. And heck, maybe it is a bit of idealism--without ideals, what are we working for? Humans as a species need a purpose, and the more people who are involved in it, the more significantly it develops in a shorter time. What if instead of having the pursuit of artificial superiority over each other be the end-all be-all of global achievement, we channel all that drive into something that actually benefits everyone for once?

Eh, maybe I'm just naive. Maybe I'm too optimistic that the human race will survive and outgrow its bratty adolescent phase and attain some sort of maturity. But what's the point of any of this if we don't have any hope of improvement, if we as a species just resign ourselves to the equivalent of being an angsty teenager for the next however long before we drive ourselves to extinction? If we refuse to go up any higher, then the only place to go from here is down, because we're probably not clever enough to think of trying sideways. We have to at least try. If not, why bother?

[Neurula]

He seems like a nice fellow and I admire how open he is about his sexuality. I hope he gets to go.

I know very little about this Mars trip. In my head I'm imagining that a bubble house will be built for everyone, kind of like Sandy's house in Spongebob.

[Corretto]

@Tiffanyy...Thanks for the thought-provoking vids. I'm still not sure what they've 'provoked' in me. The only thing that could concern me is if I was to learn that Mars was such a grim place...that the Martians were planning a similar exodus to Earth!

[BasicallySheldon]

Apologies for resurrecting an old post, just wanted to thank you all for the kind messages (I'm Ryan from the videos)!

[thylacine]

Hi Ryan from the videos. I wouldn't want to go to Mars myself... that is, if there was no way back. Earth is a mess, but it's home. Good luck, though.