Missions to Mars are far and few between because the fuel is so costly. Solution? A pair of scientists are proposing that elderly astronauts are sent on one-way missions to Mars, to boldly go... and not come back:
"'The main point is to get Mars exploration moving,' said Dirk Schulze-Makuch, a Washington State University professor who co-authored an article that seriously proposes what sounds like a preposterous idea.
At least one moon-walking astronaut was not impressed.
'This is premature,' Ed Mitchell of Apollo 14 wrote in an e-mail. 'We aren't ready for this yet.'
Also cool to the idea was NASA. President Barack Obama has already outlined a plan to go to Mars by the mid-2030s, but he never suggested these space travelers wouldn't come home.
'We want our people back,' NASA spokesman Michael Braukus said."
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