Mars One Has 78,000 Applicants 355
An anonymous reader writes "Mars One reports that 78,000 people have volunteered for a one-way ticket to Mars. A quick calculation shows that this means people lined up coast-to-coast in a line with only 40cm per person! (As Robert Zubrin already predicted). If you want, you can still go and sign up (or sign up your worst enemy). Or you can just look at some videos of the would-be travelers."
Third-party nominations? (Score:5, Insightful)
I can think of several people that I would like to volunteer for a one-way ticket to Mars. Were these volunteers self-nominated, or did Mars One accept third-party nominations?
Re:Third-party nominations? (Score:5, Funny)
You know my ex-husband too and his mistress?
Re:Third-party nominations? (Score:5, Insightful)
You obviously are wasting your energy on people who should no longer matter to you. Suggestion, best revenge is to stop caring, and move on. Or, think of it this way, your "ex" still has power over you, do you want that?
Re:Third-party nominations? (Score:5, Insightful)
The opposite of Love is not Hate, but Indifference.
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Better revenge: move to Mars, destroy the Earth.
Way more satisfying.
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With an earth-shattering kaboom.
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Neurologically speaking, revenge actually produces a pleasant chemical payoff when achieved.
A pleasant chemical payoff is best served cold.
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I can think of several people that I would like to volunteer for a one-way ticket to Mars. Were these volunteers self-nominated, or did Mars One accept third-party nominations?
More importantly, how many responders are serious? Would they really climb into a craft to go to mars? I'd wager around, let's see, none.
Re:Third-party nominations? (Score:5, Insightful)
I will wager you are wrong.
Not all 78,000 will, but I bet you could find at least 100 that would. Being first to mars, or among the first will be a huge draw.
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First to mars or last, I'd still love to go. I love travel and it's been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember to go to space. I can't think of a more exciting place to travel than Mars. Even if I was not the first person to set foot on Mars. Just for the ability to see Earth from orbit, I'd go all the way to Mars. After seeing Earth from orbit, the rest is just gravy. Sure you might never make it back, but most people never have a chance to complete a lifelong crazy dream. Sign me up! So lo
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No, you aren't going to make it back. One way. The End. Full Stop.
You don't know that. If you stay, say, 30 years on Mars, they land more people and more equipment as the years go by, more and more frequently as the tech develops and matures. One day a return trip would certainly be available. It might not be cheap (in the beginning), but hey, if you have been working on Mars for 30 years, you might be able to afford it. If nothing else, your fame from being among the first martian explorers might land you a nice advertisement gig to pay for the trip home.
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I considered it.
I won't pretend it's for mankind or science or anything like that - I'd be doing it because people would remember my name for having done something somewhat insane, with few harmful side-effects. That mankind would benefit or science would benefit is great, but it would be a side-effect.
Because I could carve a plaque that said "I was here first, bitch. Suck on that, you second-place losers." I would do my damndedst to ensure that I was remembered not only as the First Man On Mars, but also b
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With that attitude, I suspect the end of your journey would be about 5 minutes after the first airlock test.
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I would be a perfect gentleman to my shipmates and go above and beyond the call of duty, when possible, in whatever my job was.
But I'd be the first Total D-Bag on Mars to the rest of Humanity.
Re:Third-party nominations? (Score:4, Insightful)
Make sure you think of some good first words on mars then. Something to rival 'one small step.'
I'd keep it simple: "First!"
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Better yet, spend some time driving around in the buggy until you've written out in the sand "First Post!" large enough to be visible from satellite.
Re:Third-party nominations? (Score:5, Insightful)
I suspect that most of the people who are applying are planning to take advantage of being on a reality tv show. Everything but the last round is going to happen on Earth, so the vast majority of the applicants know that they will never make it to Mars and simply want to take advantage of whatever fame and fortune come with being on the Mars One tv show over the next few years, which could be considerable.
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Almost all of the applications that I have looked at seem to be from people with no useful skills (at least not ones that will be useful on Mars), little interest in going to Mars beyond stock statements like "it would be awesome" or "I want to be an astronaut", and very little skill in promoting themselves. The number of spelling errors in applicants from people in English-speaking countries is astounding. The quality of many of the videos is dismal. If these people really want to survive on Mars they n
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Re:Third-party nominations? (Score:5, Funny)
I'd pledge $5 to the "Send Snooki Home" kickstarter...
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Who or what is Snookie?
That is something best left unanswered. Count yourself fortunate that you do not know.
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I can think of several people that I would like to volunteer for a one-way ticket to Mars. Were these volunteers self-nominated, or did Mars One accept third-party nominations?
People generally fill out their own applications and there's a fee (I think, $38 US via PayPal).
And... you all do know that an applicant does not *have* to go if chosen, right?
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Send Phillip Fry. I'm getting sick of that guy and all his damned accomplishments.
Re:Third-party nominations? (Score:5, Funny)
I wasn't aware the Earth had a Constitution.
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They're trying [gaiafoundation.org].
Really? (Score:2)
I know the idea of going to Mars sounds awesome, but are there that many emotionally stable and qualified applicants who will sign up to be the first to die on another planet?
I think this is a bad way to go about this.
Bleaker than you think! (Score:5, Insightful)
If you read the Mars One, you'll see that they're counting on revenue from a reality program to fund the project.
So, the candidates must not only be emotionally stable and qualified, but be photogenic and charming enough to sustain the interest of viewers.
Imagine the horror if, after three years, all of the surviving colonists turn out to be phlegmatic, agreeable, no-drama workaholics and stable family-minded folks.
"These rating are terrible! My God, it's turned into The Waltons in space! Can we ship in some ninjas or a killer robot to liven things up?"
Re:Bleaker than you think! (Score:5, Interesting)
Awesome, I've been expecting that sooner or later reality TV would go in the direction of people dying for years now.
I'm sure the dying moments of these people will make for really awesome ratings.
What a dumb fscking idea.
Re:Bleaker than you think! (Score:4, Interesting)
Is that a problem?
What dying moments will be broadcast? Ideally, the travelers would survive long enough to set up a viable sustainable colony, whose expenses could be handled by a large enough trust fund. By the time they die of natural causes, the reality show would be long-since off the air.
In a less ideal situation, the travelers' catastrophic dying moments are broadcast to the world, and the travelers are martyrs in the ongoing process of human exploration. This is a known risk, which all the travelers must accept before volunteering. Why, then, would it be a problem to broadcast the unintentional deaths of these brave folks? The chance of their sudden death is something they accept... why can't we viewers accept it as well?
Re:Bleaker than you think! (Score:5, Insightful)
This isn't a chance. It's a 1 way trip. They'll either die on Mars, die taking off, or die getting there. But, they *will* die.
Of course viewers will accept it, they'll embrace it -- pretty much like they embraced gladiatorial and watching public executions and watching decapitation videos on the internet.
I somehow doubt that a Mars mission funded by a reality show is going to create a viable self sustaining colony which allows these people to die of natural causes.
I can accept an astronaut signing up for something which is risky, but has a reasonable chance of working. But I'm a little creeped out by a guaranteed death sentence from a one way mission operated by a private company who wants to have a reality show.
Re:Bleaker than you think! (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm a little creeped out by a guaranteed death sentence from a one way mission
why? were you creeped out when you learned that europeans sailed to the americas?
It's a 1 way trip. They'll either die on Mars, die taking off, or die getting there. But, they *will* die.
spoiler alert, everybody dies. i'd rather be one of the first people to live and die on mars than the umpteen billionth person to live and die on earth.
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You missed one: They will die if they stay on Earth. It is simply a matter of exactly when, not if.
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Re:Bleaker than you think! (Score:5, Insightful)
Gladiators, executions, and snuff films differ from pioneering in one major aspect: the pioneers choose to take the risk. The AC summed up my opinion pretty well. Everybody dies. Every moment we live is another moment closer to our death... If someone has no better long-term plans, why not volunteer?
It's a simple gamble. The prize is an extremely valuable contribution to human exploration. The entry price is difficult communication with most other humans for the rest of your life, however long that may be. The risk is a sudden death.
Like every other wager, whether it's advantageous depends on the cost/benefit analysis. Someone who doesn't value their connections on Earth nearly as much as their contributions to science may find it perfectly reasonable to risk a sudden death for the chance to begin human planetary colonization. If that's their opinion and their choice, why not respect it?
There is a pervasive idea in Western culture that death is something tragic. We avoid death to the point where we spend our whole lives taking pills, exercising, and cowering in fear of what new deaths we might encounter. The very mention of death brings sadness into a party, and funerals are silent orgies of despair. Why must we all be such cowards? Let us go each day seeking new ways to die. Not merely new to each individual, but a death unlike any other in history. Now, the corollary to that is that we must avoid deaths that have been done before. Avoid heart attacks lying on the couch, avoid getting hit by a bus that you thought would stop, and avoid getting mauled by animals.
A natural death on Mars after a long career of science hasn't happened yet, and neither has a fiery death in a do-or-die effort to return a drifting interplanetary spacecraft. Let's do it [wikipedia.org].
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I can accept an astronaut signing up for something which is risky, but has a reasonable chance of working. But I'm a little creeped out by a guaranteed death sentence from a one way mission operated by a private company who wants to have a reality show.
Life is a guaranteed death sentence. I'm not seeing how that's much different than not signing up... IMO, it's not how long you live, that's silly. You'll be dead (or unborn) for infinitely longer a time than alive. What counts is the journey, and what you do with your life.
Frankly, I've lost complete tolerance for any humans who aren't actively trying to do something about the problem of having all the eggs in one basket called Earth.
I don't care if they're going to fund Mars One via reality TV, liv
Re:Bleaker than you think! (Score:5, Insightful)
Haha,
what reality stars are emotionally stable?
If they want to make a reality show, I think we know exactly the type of people they'll select and trust me they won't be astronaut grade.
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People who are emotionally stable and qualified are not suitable for reality tv.
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There is no such thing as emotionally stable people Sheldon =) only terminally delusional people.
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I do not get the reference.
I would also argue that it is wrong.
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“If you think anyone is sane you just don't know enough about them.”
Christopher Moore, Practical Demonkeeping
Linux fortune is great.
Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory is a delusional geek who thinks he is the perfect specimen of mankind. At the top of the evolutionary order and everyone else is plagued with insanity.
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I find that show pretty offensive so I refuse to watch it. If it stereotyped other groups that way it would already be off the air.
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I don't think its any worse then Fresh Prince of Bell Air. It is mildly entertaining. But about as banal as cats and hamburgers. I can understand your dislike of it.
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Well, thats not the quote I was looking for. It goes something like this "The first stage of insanity is believing you are sane". =) I wish I could fine the exact fortune database with it, because the guy who said it I believe was someone historically known for deep thought and their outlook on psychology or philosophy.
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"Insanity is relative. It depends on who has who locked in what cage." Ray Bradbury
"Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage." H.L. Mencken
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There are degrees of emotional stability. Most people are relatively stable, otherwise nothing would get done and we couldn't have a society. The folks that fit in well with society are generally not suitable for reality programming. It would be like going to a movie called "accounts: the motion picture" where they were actual accountants engaged in regular accounting practices. I shouldn't spoil it, but about halfway in, they find a misplaced comma and have to redo the numbers.
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Agreed, but there are tons of people out there who could qualify for this without being deemed insane. Which I think is the parents argument. That anyone is insane for wanting their contribution to life be a mission to Mars on public T.V.
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Some reality Shows are fine. For example 'Big Brain Theory'.
Of course the producers work damn hard to invent some.
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No, they are counting on revenue from the application fees these 80k idiots have just paid. It's not like they really plan to send people to space.
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I hope they double check their calculations or they may die quicker than they figured by slamming into Mars.
I would volounteer. (Score:2)
But I know there are at least a 100,000 more qualified people that will volunteer and do a better job then I on the mission. I imagine a lot of people have not volunteered for that very valid reason. So these look like pretty decent numbers to me, maybe a tiny bit low. But not bad.
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Becasue the goal isn't suicide.
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Yeah, really bad selection criteria.
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I know there are at least a 100,000 more qualified people that will volunteer and do a better job then I on the mission
Being qualified for this "mission" only entails being expendable on Earth. This mission is most likely going absolutely nowhere, the real unknowns are what the showstopper is going to be. Will it be their tenuous grasp on basic science? Or perhaps the fact that they havn't got the faintest idea about how they're going to get to Mars in the first place? Maybe it'll be something completely different... We just don't know. Exciting times.
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Self disqualification is a big part of a voluntary process =)
How can the best people be found if no-one volunteers? I however agree with this.
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Sadly, self-disqualification is exercising rational thought; something I think you'd want lots of in a mission like this.
Oh wait, this is a reality show now? Carry on....
Maybe I'll start a pool on how long until the first murder occurs.
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Sadly, self-disqualification is exercising rational thought; something I think you'd want lots of in a mission like this.
Yes, the Catch-22 Logic [wikipedia.org]:
The "Catch-22" is that "anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn't really crazy". Hence, pilots who request a mental fitness evaluation are sane, and therefore must fly in combat. At the same time, if an evaluation is not requested by the pilot, he will never receive one and thus can never be found insane, meaning he must also fly in combat.
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(like Bas saying he doesn't want any engineers...WTF??)
They probably don't want anyone smart enough to see through the scam that it boils down to being. Kind of like the cold fusion guys some months back that didn't want an audience for their test run. What happened to those people anyways?
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Death from neutrino's? Woops containment shielding failed, nothing to see here... was it a tokamak?
So what? (Score:5, Insightful)
So? In this era of "liking" and "sharing" and "+1ing"... 78k "likes" isn't all that impressive. (And the vast majority probably aren't qualified and won't pass screening in the first place - they're just applying because it's "cool".)
Re:So what? (Score:5, Insightful)
Huh? 78,000 people paid an application fee of at least $5. I would say that is a bit beyond "liking".
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Math is way off. (Score:5, Informative)
Somebody needs a math lesson. 3000 miles * 5280 feet per mile / 78000 = 203 feet. That is a tad more than 40 cm.
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Somebody needs a math lesson. 3000 miles * 5280 feet per mile / 78000 = 203 feet. That is a tad more than 40 cm.
Seems appropriate given this is a story about sending something to Mars.
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Wait, are we talking about the guy who made the math mistake, or the guy who didn't use the metric system?
40cm? Bad math in summary (Score:2)
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I think you are right. Someone missed a decimal place. Does not inspire confidence in an interplanetary mission.
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I'm willing to bet that the combined ineptitude of the /. editor's have a better chance of setting foot on Mars using nothing but toilet rolls and bent spoons, than this mission has. It's a scam, the sign-up fee would be your clue.
I hope the guy who did that calculation... (Score:4, Funny)
I hope the guy who did that calculation is not computing the path of the spacecraft.
Money in the bank (Score:2)
Telephone hygienists (Score:4, Funny)
Just wondering. What percentage of those are Telephone hygienists?
Who cares? (Score:2)
This is about as likely to happen as North Korea landing a man on the moon.
I'll volunteer to be the first man to arm wrestle an alien.
Registration fee (Score:2)
I hope they bring back Elvis (Score:2)
NT.
Have they gotten past the radiation problem? (Score:2)
If I recall correctly, a trip of that amount of time and distance will expose people to all sorts of life shortening types of energy. I'm not sure I see the point of that trip without protection from all of that. Is there SPF-2000 yet?
Been there, done that... (Score:2)
I'm still waiting for Pan Am to let me know when my number comes up for the Moon First Flight Club...
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The only way to determine if it is fake is to participate in it. Take "The Hunger Games" scenario for example. You can either stay back in your little agenda 21 district and watch it all play out on T.V.
Or you can step up and volunteer to play by the rules set forth. Then you can affect change from within the system. Or get to a point were you can demonstrate to everyone how fake it is.
It is a matter of perception. But the vast majority of people do not want to control their own destiny. Thats the simplest
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Splits a sentence in the middle and starts a whole new paragraph with the second fragment!
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Sign me up ;p lol... I took a day off of spamming /. yesterday so give me a break I found these topics interesting today.
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The only way to determine if it is fake is to participate in it. Take "The Hunger Games" scenario for example. You can either stay back in your little agenda 21 district and watch it all play out on T.V.
Ha! Shows what you know. There are only 12 districts - okay, 13 [wikipedia.org], but we don't talk about them.
[ sigh ]
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Well I imagine most people would come to your conclusion after they tested their theories in the real word. Your welcome =)
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Already been done: Space Cadets [wikipedia.org].
However
A) Their application process would seem to make this more difficult (you want people who aren't really interested in space so they are less informed and easier to fool)
B) They are also talking about a multi-year training program, which would seem cost prohibitive and would also raise the risk of the participants finding out exponentially.
It's a FAAAAAAKE! (Score:3)
This is nothing but a fake reality show designed to try and fool people into thinking they're going to mars
or, more likely, a fake fake reality show designed to fool viewers into thinking that the contestants thought they were going to Mars.
(Actually, putting even one "fake" before "reality show" is redundant).
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I think he meant between them.
That still seems too short though, or these people are very wide.
Re:312 km coast to coast (Score:5, Funny)
They are Americans.
Re:312 km coast to coast (Score:4, Informative)
If each of these people were 64 meters wide this would work out.
Re:312 km coast to coast (Score:5, Funny)
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It's a bigger pity that you don't know what the word "redundant" means.
Re: 312 km coast to coast (Score:5, Funny)
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1000m = 1km
That would be 31.2 km.
Of course, as you pointed out, that's a very short distance between coasts, so which two coasts are we talking about here?
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What is that, 20 miles? Must be an island.
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Long Island coasts, it seems. I hope they use better math when designing the spacecraft...
Re:312 km coast to coast (Score:5, Informative)
Mercifully it looks like the math error might be on the part of the poster rather than the article. I did a quick skim of the article and didn't see anywhere were they mentioned anything like how far apart people would be if stretched from coast to coast.
Of course it is always possible that the article was edited by the time I saw it but since the post doesn't appear to be a quote ripped from the site Occam's Razor is that the poster wrote up the post, did the math, and got it wrong.
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Bear in mind that this is a Dutch project. A country with coasts roughly 31.2 km apart...
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I disagree. Sending people to Alpha Centauri no. Robotic spacecraft, yes we could totally get something there in a century, or even 50 years. Could we get something there that could send a signal back to us? Maybe not. You'd need to send a pretty big power plant to send a signal back that far for us to catch back here. But sending a probe thats small with a nuclear Orion engine yes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion) [wikipedia.org]
Saturn is a piece of cake. But it would be an extremely shitty
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I already linked the article: But here is the relevant bit.
At 0.1c, Orion thermonuclear starships would require a flight time of at least 44 years to reach Alpha Centauri, not counting time needed to reach that speed (about 36 days at constant acceleration of 1g or 9.8 m/s2). At 0.1c, an Orion starship would require 100 years to travel 10 light years. The astronomer Carl Sagan suggested that this would be an excellent use for current stockpiles of nuclear weapons.[13]
I tend to agree with this analysis. Many
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By the way the engineering doesn't use anything un-real. Its all pretty standard stuff. I don't know if there was ever a test. Probably not, there's been to much hub bub about nuclear batteries on Cassini.
Just testing one would be a worth while mission though, which would probably fit in the budget of the DoD or even Nasa.
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WTF does this mean?
Someone found a really small island to have the enrollment on? Who knows?
78000 * 40 cm = 3120000 cm = 31200 m = 31.2 km.
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If that's the reason you think you wont go, you're not smart enough. Which incidently qualifies you to go. How's that for Catch-22?