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[mainiac]

Everybody dies eventually. But 4 people get to die in a very unique way.

Why can't they die in a unique way on the moon, where they are useful?  We could even say that the last survivor gets to come home.

[PTTG??]

I'm pretty sure that there's at least one dead cosmonaut on the moon, so no, not unique enough.

[Sheb]

Why would they be useful on the moon?

P.S. And no cosmonauts died on the moon.

[WillowLuman]

Someone's ashes got taken to the moon in a little capsule alongside a mission (and this was post-mortem), but not scattered, and it was only a portion of his ashes.

[martinuzz]

Everybody dies eventually. But 4 people get to die in a very unique way.

While, if this were a mission purely for !!SCIENCE!!, I would wholeheartedly approve,
in this case I do believe, that anyone crazy enough to go on a one way trip to slow and certain death, to radiation cancer, just for their minute of fame on a damn reality show,
is clinically insane, in the narcistic kind of way.
I do think that here in the Netherlands, they would fall well within the definition of one of our laws, that allows for forced psychiatric institutionalization of a person, when he or she poses a direct threat to the life of either him/herself or others.

[WillowLuman]

You're far too cynical. Has it occurred to you that maybe, just maybe, they want to be the first people to live on another planet? That some people would give their lives to achieve that kind of historical milestone? And did you not read about the actual project, and see that they're sending trained professionals (including doctors) alongside the ordinary people?

Also, Mars' surface may recieve more radiation than Earth's, but not very much more. It's during the journey that they'd need to worry about it.

[10ebbor10]

Honestly, they won't even survive long enough to die of radiation cancer.

On a side note, thanks to some international treaties the Netherlands signed, they are responsible for things their private sector does in space. Which means that if something goes wrong, the Netherlands is legally obligated to try and sort it out.

You're far too cynical. Has it occurred to you that maybe, just maybe, they want to be the first people to live on another planet? That some people would give their lives to achieve that kind of historical milestone? And did you not read about the actual project, and see that they're sending trained professionals (including doctors) alongside the ordinary people?

No, they're going to try and pick some doctors from their volunteers. Still going to end in disaster.

[mainiac]

Why would they be useful on the moon?

P.S. And no cosmonauts died on the moon.

It's much, much cheaper and faster to ship equipment to the moon so for less then the price of four people on mars we can have 4 people on the moon plus some equipment for them to expand their settlement.  They can process moon dust into oxygen and silicon for future lunar settlement.  They can mine a volcanic fissure for iron to be used in constructing future facilities.  They can do a geological survey to find the best places for future development.  Heck they can even just die horribly and give us more knowledge about living on the moon so a better equipped wave of settlers in the future has an easier time at it.

It's true that on mars they could do similar activities but a mars colony is a lot less viable in the near future (a century at least).  So if we are going to send them to die, we should send them to die on the moon.  The fastest route to a mars colony remains building a moon colony first then using the moon colony to launch a mission to mars.

[10ebbor10]

The moon is geologically death, and doesn't have any volcanic fissures.

And no, the fastest route isn't to first construct a moon colony first. The fastest route is to send them directly to Mars, as is to be expected. The Safest and most reliable route is the moon hop thingy though.

[mainiac]

And no, the fastest route isn't to first construct a moon colony first. The fastest route is to send them directly to Mars, as is to be expected. The Safest and most reliable route is the moon hop thingy though.

You are right; I should have said "the fastest economically practical way".

The moon is geologically death, and doesn't have any volcanic fissures.

Again, right.  I should have said "extinct volcanic fissure".

[WillowLuman]

Why would they be useful on the moon?

P.S. And no cosmonauts died on the moon.

It's much, much cheaper and faster to ship equipment to the moon so for less then the price of four people on mars we can have 4 people on the moon plus some equipment for them to expand their settlement.  They can process moon dust into oxygen and silicon for future lunar settlement.  They can mine a volcanic fissure for iron to be used in constructing future facilities.  They can do a geological survey to find the best places for future development.  Heck they can even just die horribly and give us more knowledge about living on the moon so a better equipped wave of settlers in the future has an easier time at it.

There's a slight problem with that. The lunar surface is only rich in iron in some parts. In others, it's more aluminum.

[mainiac]

Why would they be useful on the moon?

P.S. And no cosmonauts died on the moon.

It's much, much cheaper and faster to ship equipment to the moon so for less then the price of four people on mars we can have 4 people on the moon plus some equipment for them to expand their settlement.  They can process moon dust into oxygen and silicon for future lunar settlement.  They can mine a volcanic fissure for iron to be used in constructing future facilities.  They can do a geological survey to find the best places for future development.  Heck they can even just die horribly and give us more knowledge about living on the moon so a better equipped wave of settlers in the future has an easier time at it.

There's a slight problem with that. The lunar surface is only rich in iron in some parts. In others, it's more aluminum.

Well yeah, but why wouldn't you pick a site that has what you want?

[WillowLuman]

The oxygen's more bound up in the aluminum than the iron, but then again mining oxygen from rocks is probably not the best way to obtain it. If you're not recycling your atmosphere (and other volatiles), you're not doing it right.

[Sheb]

Yeah, but you're going to have losses anyway, and for expension mining an athmosphere might be easier than importing it.

Anyway, do we have a lunar geological map?

[WillowLuman]

The moon is fairly well mapped. Still plenty of work to do, but compared to other celestial bodies it's pretty good.