Fly me to Mars. One-way

What a great idea. each country should nominate one person to take the trip: - Julius for South Africa, Bob for Zimbabwe ......etc. etc.

Can I suggest Tony Blair for GB and George Bush for USA, steven kuny

Oh, excellent idea. We've buggered up one planet, so let's go out and bugger up another one....

I think it's a brilliant idea - it would be such a fantastic challenge, and require the development of new technology which would undoubtedly have applications elsewhere... Most importantly, it would help satisfy the human urge to explore the outer planets, as a stepping stone to even greater things. The cooperation required would surely be a unifying force - certainly amongst the scientific community.

Paul Davies has always been one of my favourite science writers, full of interesting ideas and very authoritative. It doesn't surprise me that he would come up with such a remarkable, visionary plan!

How about we clean up our own backyard first? NASA should rather invest in sustainable technology before we stuff up another planet. Over 2 billion people are undernourished or have no access to safe drinking water, and we are making species extinct at a rate of knots. Yah, sending scientists to Mars is far more important. Wait til the nations start fighting about national boundaries and mineral deposits as they get there..

While I agree that there are many problems on this planet that require attention, as Chris above states, these kinds of programs have ways of producing technological leaps and bounds that would not be possible otherwise. It's the difference between putting out a small fire currently burning and clearing all the flammable materials that could catch fire later on. Hundreds, maybe thousands of current day technologies would not have been possible without the help and funding of the original space missions, including a great deal of renewable energy programs.

I honestly lose my breath when I think of how amazing it would be to hear the voice of an astronaut coming back from Mars. It would reinvigorate an entirely new generation of engineers and scientist. I think if there are willing souls to sacrifice for the greater good (and get some awesome views of space), this plan should be green-lighted immediately. We always think humanity's ingenuity knows no bounds and this would be the best way to show it.

@Chris:
If wait until the perfect moment in human history, to do anything great -- waiting until no one is starving, until there are no conflicts, or no strife -- then humanity will never do anything great.

There will always be people living in terrible conditions, in conflict zones, hungry. Always. That is the nature of human life on Earth, sadly.

We have to move forward, expand, and achieve great and new things. The more we achieve and the more we have forward, then hopefully the more we can help those who are suffering.

But just because someone is suffering, doesn't mean we must put our future on hold.

Spending money on grand ventures like this, is not like we are taking the money and launching into deep space. The money is spent on the salaries of scientists and engineers, and the janitors who clean their offices at night. Those people buy house, cars, and put their kids through college. Science and engineering is an important core part of our economy that has many spinoffs that help others.

We can't stop innovation, and we can't stop pushing forward for great and grand goals... we have to keep moving forward.

You should read about United Launch Alliance's blueprint for space exploration at http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2009/09/ula-claim-gap-reducing-solution-via-eelv-exploration-master-plan/

They're proposing a plan that would allow affordable access for Lunar exploration and provide the foundation for other near Earth goals such as Mars. With their plan, a return trip from Mars just might not be the budget busting experience that it is in most scenarios.

With that said, it does make a lot of sense that the first explorers to Mars understand that there's no guarantee of a return home. Makes the motivation to really build a human outpost that much greater.

First of all, I completely agree with this approach. Colonizing Mars is vital to the survival of the human species. As it stands, a single solar event or impact will kill us all.

However, I strongly disagree with the idea that the initial colonizers should be scientists. The people we need are those who can survive there by building and growing everything needed to provide for basic human needs. Scientists are no good at that. We need machinists, plumbers, farmers, nuclear technicians, construction workers, miners, welders, electricians, glassblowers, mechanics, handymen, and chemists. Scientists produce only knowledge, and knowledge can be transmitted from earth. Scientists can come later, once the basic infrastructure has been built.

I would go in a heartbeat, with no hope of return.

Any hope of solving our problems on this planet are already being fought for and is or clearly isn't working. A permanent base on Mars certainly could open the door to migrating off this planet. Mars is rich in iron and various other resources useful for a metals and space launch industries. It's expensive to lift things off the Earth but Mars has only 38% of Earth's gravity. Besides having to live in shelters or protective suits, Mars has everything we need to sustain life and various industries. And, global warming would be a plus.

On Earth, we are locked in political power struggles due to respect for the poorly educated and plain idiots. Education is the problem. We've focused so much on furthering the education of those who do well academically and weeding out those that don't that we are now being over-run by those who didn't. And the masses of idiots we have created will destroy us all. Education should be about lifted everyone's current level as high as can be. Extra help should go to those struggling perhaps even more than those who are excelling. We've had our priorities backwards.