> "It would still cause me a great deal of thought, but I think my answer now is it would be very difficult to leave my partner, to leave my people, for that amount of time, because it would be far more than a year," she said.
If we do long distance human space exploration, it will likely have to be as a community, where people can have long term relationships with pair bonding and sexual relations.
Although that's funny, the ethical considerations of heterosexual couples on a long space flight are rather important.
No one knows what happens if you get pregnant in space. No one knows what happens to such a baby. (No one's admitted to having sex in space, although it's generally suspected to have happened.) (See https://www.acityonmars.com/ because the book discusses this in more detail.)
Birth control isn't 100% effective. If couples are having sex in space, we have to assume that they will get pregnant. I personally don't like the idea of forcing astronauts to get abortions; but in this case, the unknowns of a fetus developing in 0-g makes it quite a conundrum that makes my brain hurt.
I understand this sentiment applies to running marathon or climbing a mountain because you don't really have to sacrifice anything besides time and money, but saying you'd go on a hugely dangerous, probably one way trip, to Mars 'because it's there' is entirely different to me. If you do something adventurous on Earth your friends, family, etc don't really lose anything. If you go to Mars you're literally saying goodbye to them. The fact it's possible probably shouldn't be enough of a reason.
I feel you are doing the original phrase a disservice.
"Why did you want to climb Mount Everest? Because it's there" is the famous quote from George Mallory before his third and final attempt to reach the summit - he had lost men in both previous occasions, and he famously died during the third. And as his friend reported, "He said to me that what he would have to face would be more like war than adventure, and that he did not believe he would return alive"[1]. Mallory knew full well that the chances of coming back were low, and not returning from Mount Everest and not returning from Mars are not that different for those who stay behind.
It also occurs to me that someone alive in Mars would be better connected to their family than literally anyone who settled in America in the 1800s. I wouldn't do it, but it's not that impossible to imagine.
> "It would still cause me a great deal of thought, but I think my answer now is it would be very difficult to leave my partner, to leave my people, for that amount of time, because it would be far more than a year," she said.
If we do long distance human space exploration, it will likely have to be as a community, where people can have long term relationships with pair bonding and sexual relations.