One-of-a-kind trip is one-way only

I see where the Netherlands-based nonprofit Mars One hopes to put the first humans on the Red Planet in 2023. Applications are now being accepted.

This isn't a trip that I'd do well on. I mean, traveling with my family across the country back in the day in a '63 Pontiac was fun, even though I'd watch the gas gauge like a hawk and remind my dad constantly that we needed to stop for fuel whenever the needle got anywhere close to the “E.”

This trip, by my calculations, will take somewhere around six months to get from here to there, with no stops at a Best Western and dip in the pool to break up the monotony.

And then there is this little detail: Whoever gets to go won't be coming back. According to a story on SPACE.com, “There are no plans to return the pioneers to Earth.”

Man, that's a real deal breaker, for me anyway.