Wed, 05 Mar 2008
Eremitical astronauts
There's some talk about setting up a one-way mission to Mars - a lone astronaut heads there to stay. That simplifies the whole man-to-Mars problem, and it also complicates it: no ordinary person is sane enough to withstand the spiritual and psychological rigors of solitary life on another planet.
That's a job for a person whose life is designed to be lived in isolation and in union with God - Camaldolese or Benedictine hermits, for example. Heck, you could probably get a largish crew of educated and trained Benedictine monks (or Carthusian or Camaldolese, etc.) to do the job and establish the first monastery on another planet. It would at least make a cool premise for a sci-fi novel.
posted by Bill White at 20:56 | permalink | email me | | |
