Well, the pioneers have always been the misfits. They couldn't stand the society they lived in, or they had nothing there for them, or they had problems or whatever. They were willing to face the unknown, rather than try to keep living under the conditions they had been. So sure, it's people with fewer ties who would leave here and go somewhere else, knowing they couldn't return.

You'd have to have a whole ecosystem on the craft to keep you going, enough to sustain itself. Animals, plants, energy for the plants, etc. These issues would have to be worked out first, and tested. Only then could you have a hope of not running out of resources.

The one problem I see is that you'd have a bunch of misfits confined together. In the old days, they went alone, or were confined together for relatively short times, a month or so tops. Several months might be far too long. So probably they'd have to confine these people for a few months right here on earth, to see whether they'd go crazy and kill each other.

This trip, if taked today, is a pointless waste.

I'd rather wait till they built a "real" Enterprise. It can be done, just beurocracy and curroption has stopped it.

If they put a man on the moon in the 60's I see absolutly no reason why the Enterprise hasnt been built yet.

Can nobody think BIG?

I wish NASA would get HUNGRY, and the Governenment would stop stripping there cash.

at this rate, I think the Private sector is going to put a man on mars first.

i'd need the combined aquired knowlege of all civilizations, my self to be emotionally and spiritually matured and lived through theraisin of my child to the age of understanding why im going, and the addition of lots of music preferably 500 TB of music especially spacey trance techno and a stock pile to the apocylypse of drugs HAHA then id rise to the occasion oh yeah and my satillite radio

[edit on 25-7-2009 by tumache]

lol, is there actually a way to sign up?, if they send me to the moon i'm going to shout on live TV if i see a ufo or some evidence of structures/life ^_^

sign me up

be for i pop my clogs i would love to be shot into space and report back what I see..

I better start saving up

lol

I think they lure people to an idea of wonderfull space and all its' magnificence, and for that reason they don't think there would be a shortage of volunteers. But if they had to advertise there idea with the possibility of you surviving instead of the wonders of space, I bet there wouldn't be as much volunteers as they hoped for.

I'd go ... it a hot L.A. minute, if they'd take me. I'm not afraid to die... I know there's a LOT MORE on the Other side.

Honestly, before any of this is even going to be remotely possible, we're going to need a quantum leap in rocket propulsion systems. Let's face it there hasn't been much advancement in that department over the last 50 years, so most of us reading this stuff today, will be long dead before this pipe-dream can become a reality.

Let's just concentrate on the Moon and Mars for now.

Great quesiton, but reckon I'll stay brother...Child of Earth and all that jazz...Would rather die knowing that my ashes get shot into space, could handle that....But definitely not the whole 'lost in spcae' vibe.....Great question!

icould trip it with a piss-bag full of fresh H2O &and& a few smokies

i like the idea of space exploration and all, but with our current technology we couldn't even make it too far... even if on this ship there were a way to keep coming up with supplies (such as food and water) to keep "the crew" alive until they died of old age, still wont make it that far in one life time.
although i think that i would probably go on some kind of deep exploration quest, i would much rather go to help with the colony that we are looking to start on the moon in 10 years or so. to me that would be so much better. on the moon you can receive supplies as needed. on the deep exploration expedition, you could not receive any supplies, for such problems as parts that need to be fixed and or replaced on the craft.
and to add on to the moon colony, i think it is going to be freaking awesome!!lol i would so love to be even a volunteer for that. and once that becomes stable enough, maybe even try to colonize Mars. ( i think that is the goal after the moon)

This Space exploration thing sounds like a GREAT idea ! I nearly pissed my pants in excitement when I saw the free ''go to space ticket''..but then all that went away when I saw the ''Oh yeh your not coming back by the way'' thing.

Thats like someone coming up to you and giving you sexual access to one of the hottest woman alive, only to later reveal that she has a penis.

I would still sign up though, just as long as they ship that will be used to travel in will stop at either the Moon or Mars and set up a colony there or whatever.

I would much rather prefer the moon because I want to take a golf set up their and then start hitting golf balls back to Earth and see what happens. Hopefully they'll hit someones brand new Ferrari lol