Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronald Brak
If I was going to mars I couldn't in good conscious go on a mission where they were going to bring me back. It simply would not be worth it. The money it would cost to bring me back could save many lives on earth. If we define "saving a life" as giving five or more extra years of life to someone who would otherwise die, then I would estimate that used properly the money saved from not returning me from mars could save a vast number of lives hear on earth. More than thousands. Judgeing from my actions so far, I value my own life as worth more than the lives of 500 complete strangers, and I'm quite comfortable with that figure, but more than thousands of compete strangers? Nah, leave me on mars.
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Wrong logic, for two reasons:
First: If they should not bring you back, they should not have put you there in the first place.
Second: Not bringing you back, or better stated, not spending that money on such a mission, would in no way guarantee that that money be spent on saving other people's life. Instead, it could have also gone to warfare, and thereby even killing more people.
But, using some economic reasoning would surely be very wise before a lot of money goes into such projects.
It disfavours manned missions strongly, as the scientific data we could get by using only a fraction of that money using robotic missions are many times more.