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01/26/2002 Archived Entry: "Symposium"

My writeup of the Mars Society UK symposium, weighing in at just under 5000 words along with numerous photos, is now online.

Interesting excerpt:

If you had £100 to bet on when the first person would set foot on Mars, what date would go for? Also, what odds of survival would be required for you to be persuaded to travel to Mars?

Robert Zubrin: July 20th 2019 (audience laughs) – it’s the 50th anniversary of Apollo Moon Landing, and in any case it’ll probably take ten years or so for the politics to become right for a commitment to a humans to Mars mission. If there’s 75% chance of survival, I’m game.

Martyn Fogg: I’d just like to be alive when it happens, so thirty to forty years from now would be fine. I’d need a 90% chance of survival to go to Mars.

Charles Frankel: I’m with Robert, July 20th 2019. But I think perhaps there will be a meteorite shower causing the landing to be moved up to July 14th… (French Bastille Day). As long as there’s a 60 to 70% chance of survival, I’d go.

Mark Sims: 2024, and I’d go with a 60% chance of survival.

David Cullen: 15th August – it’s my birthday!