The New Frontier

So I recently read an article about a trip to Mars that was open for anyone across the globe to apply for. What's the catch? It's a one-way ticket. That's right, the selected and heavily trained astronauts won't be returning to our home planet, but rather trying to populate and establish a human society on Mars for thousands of years to come. 
Now a lot of people have different opinions about the Mars One mission, some saying its not a good idea. Sending a man to the moon costs 150 billion dollars, while sending someone 55 billion miles to Mars would easily cost three or four times more than that. This all being for a mission that has a decent chance of getting knocked out of orbit (no pun intended). Nay-sayers argue that the money and time should be spent here on our own planet fixing our own problems rather than just giving up on our planet. 
But I don't think that we're throwing away our future hopes for Earth with Mars One, more like expressing our curiosity and our desire to explore. How does this differ from Europeans sailing to the New World? I'm sure many people disagreed with their exploration at the time, but it turned out for the better. Mars is the new frontier of the 21st century. I don't believe we as people should cap our minds from discovery, but to continue to open ourselves to new ideas and see what the universe lays in store for us. 

Check out the article on Mars One here

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