I like to believe... am actively enjoying... the idea of this project actually getting off the ground. I think it's bold, and more than very dangerous for anyone intrepid/crazy enough to agree to live out the rest of their lives on Mars... assuming they actually make it there alive and, assuming their lives are long and prosperous. It wouldn't make particularly good television if your stars die gasping for air, or dying of dehydration or worse... starvation. What will they use for toilet tissue? What about medical emergencies? Infection? Broken bones? Fresh fruit and vegetables? Meat? And those living quarters... they look awfully claustrophobic. What about child-bearing - assuming couples are going to Mars? Should something go wrong, will mothers die in childbirth without the services of a good doctor? Will we watch the first Martian die for lack of good pediatric care? What about surgery?

I could conjure a whole list of things that can go terribly wrong, but that would be the pessimist talking, and mankind, as a race, has become the embodiment of pessimism. We've lost that "stuff," the right stuff it took to get to the moon. We have become too timid in adventure. We've stopped believing. And that last, I believe, is the worst of all... we've stopped believing.

Well, "I want to believe," as the poster on Fox Mulder's office wall declared. Really, I do. But a lot of things can go wrong between today and April 2023. Encapsulated corpses could litter the vast distances between planets. And what a distinction to earn! To go down in history as the one who died in transit to Mars, body unrecoverable. But when you throw yourself headlong into the black you have to understand that events may not turn out as you'd like.

Our history is replete with examples of brave exploration.

I want to believe... truly.

I want to believe we haven't lost that spirit of bravery.

But.