Mission to Mars

So in case you haven't read the link I posted below, you need to go and do that. It's all about how NASA is trying to seriously push for a manned mission to Mars.

The deal is though, that it's a one-way trip for anyone who decides to go.

I've been thinking about that a lot lately, what it would take to leave, what it would mean to go, and how you would survive over there. (Obviously this has some exciting sci-fiction plot bunnies as well) They say that what they might do instead of modifying the mars atmo for humans is modify the human genome for mars using synthetic biology. How freaking awesome is that?!

It would be nuts, absolutely nuts, to leave. And you know that the first people they're going to send are the old codgery astronauts with nothing to lose who have decided that this would be a hell of a way to go out. But they won't make it all the way there. They really need someone younger. Someone, well, more my age than anything else. Someone with enough life in them to give them that will to live, that desprate need for exploration, that something that makes youth so enviable.

Can you imagine being that teen? Signing the dotted line and literally saying goodbye to the only home we have ever known? To the only body we have ever known? Because it won't just be a matter of "It's too expensive to bring them home" or "We just didn't build the rocket to return" No. If you sign up for this, if you let them modify your body, you won't even be able to breathe Earth's air anymore. You literally can't come home again because you'll die.

Imagine knowing that not only was the next breath going to be your last breath ever on earth, but that you weren't going to die. You were going to be the first humanoid (for are you even a human being anymore? Talk about identity crisis) to ever set foot on another alien world. (Not just a satelite of our own dear earth).

I figure too they'll send you out in pairs. With a young guy and a young girl, an older guy and an older girl, and a pair of old astronauts with dust coming out of their rears when they fart. All of whom have been altered for Mars. Martians, if you will. But you just know that they won't all make it. You just know that the two kids are going to be the only ones who are able to adapt to the new life quick enough to survive.

And of course, there will be things we didn't think about either. Things we, as earth-kids, didn't even consider. Like how skin will react when exposed to such sun (talk about tan, hey?) or our eyes. If they aren't properly modified, you could go blind from such exposure. Our blood. You would have to flush our bodies with a different type of blood that used a different element (not oxygen) to power our being. Who knows if it would even be possible to do this. Maybe we'd just end up like spongebob with a fishbowl of water on our heads instead. Keep  it simple.


Still, it's a desprate return to our Exploratory past. People didn't think they were coming home when they decided to travel to the new world. And they won't this time. Who knows, maybe in 100 years I'll be buying a condo on Mars. :)

RAWR!!

Okay, before I get into the explanation of the Title, West Side Story was fantastic! Wooo! South's Drama Department strikes again!! <3 Yay.


Now then, RAAAAAAAAAWR.

I can't, but I want to, but I shouldn't, but that song keeps playing in my head, and I keep thinking about it, and I keep wondering, and I keep seeing that UGH! No. No no no no no no no .... no.

.........................................................maybe.

NO.


...........................maybe???




....maybe.


It just doesn't help at all that the last page in the book is all about the night you're "supposed" to have and now I know that HE CAN FUCKING DANCE TOO DAMNIT. GAHHHH!



.................................................................................................................................RAWR.

http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php

http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php

READ. NOW.

This is one of those blustery November days when I'm stuck in my future.

I can't get away from it. From the me I could be, will be, want to be, hope I have the guts to become. I'm so far away from everyone I love here, I'm off in my own new place, somewhere clean, somewhere fresh, in the middle of some blustery November day a year from now.

I'll probably be a little hungry. I'll probably have a paper to write. I'll probably be struggling to make friends. I'll probably be listening to music. But I'll be on my own in a big city where I can go out at night and either sit by the water's edge and listen, or dive into the middle of the city and shut out all the silence. I'll be walking under dark shadows of gothic buildings fingering my keys in my pockets, pulling my jacket a little tighter around my neck, and smiling at the crisp stars above me.

Independence. Sweet, sweet, independence, you're the only thing that's keeping me in my classes on nights like this.


Headed to Chicago:

You and I, we have history
way back when's and remember the time's
all too often's and I know you better's
I love you, I do
but it's time for me to go
I hope you know
These have been some of the best ones yet
But the better's out there
waiting
calling
spinning underneath the Chance and the Dreams
dancing.

So I'm leaving you, dear
heading out to somewhere...
different
away
farther
I need the faster, the louder, the appreciation of silence
your slug-filled monotony
your rain dropped blues
and overly yellowed greens
grate on my imagination

I need space from what I've known
to see who I can be
and find out what's left of me
when I've conquered the Windy City.