What if NASA offered you a chance to go to Mars? Would you go?

DO YOU WANT TO GO TO MARS?
A lot of people, including myself, really love outer space. But, do you really want to go there? Probably not!

If NASA called you and gave you the chance to be one of only a dozen people to go on the first trip to Mars, would you go?
It sounds cool. I have always wanted to go to outer space. That would be so awesome to spend one day in space. If, it only took a few hours to get to Mars, that would be cool to.
But, be careful what you wish for, because, you might get your wish!
On the space station, they recycle water. In other words, the water they use to flush the toilet gets filtered and cleaned. Then it goes back into a tank and the Astronauts drink that water! Then, they pee it out into the toilet, it gets filtered again, goes back into the holding tank and repeats the process over and over again! Yuck!
They lose muscle mass, because, in almost 0 gravity, you don't get to work your muscles very much. They have to exercise 2 hours a day to prevent muscle loss.
Food doesn't taste the same in space as it does on Earth.
What would you do if you can out of food or if the food you have with you spoiled or rotted and it was no longer safe to eat? The nearest grocery store is about 35,000 miles away, on Earth.
It is a very small space on a rocket, space shuttle or the ISS. It would get boring up there in those cramped quarters. If there is someone up there with you that you don't get along with, that would suck for you! It will take about 5 or 6 months to get to Mars with today's technology. You'll be on the planet for probably 6 months to a year, then a 6 month long trip back to Earth. All that time, you'd be with someone you hate!
The closest Doctor to you will be on Earth! If you get sick or injured, you are on your own. You will be able to call the Doctor on Earth and talk to him, but, he can't give you any prescription medication, stitch up a wound, put a cast on a broken bone, perform surgery or anything like that!
Mars is much smaller than Earth. That means there will be less gravity. That will have an affect on your weight, the amount of pressure and stress on your Spine, how you walk and other things. Astronauts have no stress on their spine on the International Space Station. In fact, while their in space, their spine stretches out and the Astronauts are about an inch or two taller in space. After 6 months, they come back to Earth and the Earth's gravity pulls their spine down and puts stress on it again. That causes back pain.
There are a lot of dust storms up there. The wind blows the Red, Iron Oxide all around and it will be hard to see. The wind might even blow you around as well. You will be much lighter on Mars than on Earth.
(The surface of the planet is made up of Iron Oxide, which is basically rust from iron, just like on a car. That's what gives Mars it's red color.)
You'll have to wear a space suit everywhere you go. You might get a hole in your suit, which you can't just fix with duct tape. You could also run out of Oxygen or have problems with your O2 tank. Either one of those things: a hole in your suit or problems with your Oxygen, would be life threatening.
It is very cold and dusty up there on Mars. The atmosphere doesn't stop Metiors or harmful UV Ray's, Gamma Ray's, X Ray's, and other harmful things from space as well as the Earth's atmosphere does.
If your space ship breaks down, there's no one there to fix it and no way for it to be fixed. You would never make it back home to Earth.
I am sure you'd have to sign a waiver before you went to Mars, saying you know all the risks you're taking and if anything happens to you your family can't sue!
On the bright side, you would die famous. You would always be known as one of the first people to ever land on Mars. NASA would probably name a satellite after you, your birthday might become a national holiday, people would write books and movies about you and your name would be as famous as Neil Armstrong, Galileo, Stephen Hawking and Edwin Hubble.

What if you were the only person left on Earth?

(My reason for writing this is: To explain what life would be like if you lived forever and never died, but, you were also the only human left on Earth.
I've often wondered what that would be like. I wanted to write a book about it. But, that proved to be harder than I thought I'd be. So I just posted a short story on my blog, rather than an entire novel.)

Imagine what it would be like if one day you made a wish that you would live forever. Then one day something strange happens and every human gets really sick and dies all over the world in one day, that is, all except you! Now you will learn that, sometimes, you have to be careful what you wish for, because you just might get your wish!
Since every person on Earth just died at the same time, strange and catastrophic things instantly start to happen all around you. You were just walking around town in New York City with 5 of your close friends at the time it happened. Suddenly, your friends all start complaining of having chest pain. You look around and see everyone else walking down the sidewalk or driving their car is having chest pain to. You're confused, because you feel fine. About one minute later, every person you see just falls down dead!
Thousands of cars crash all over the road.
There is almost no electricity, except for places that have their own generators, solar power or other sources of electricity. So 99% of all the lights go out around town.
Now you are getting scared and lonely.
It only takes about a minute for airplanes to start falling out of the sky and crashing into the ground and buildings. The pilots and everyone else are already dead, so nobody's left to fly the plane.
You think, "Since everybody's dead, I might as well take all their money." That's actually a good idea, because, you may need it to start a fire to keep warm.
Now that you're the only person left, money is worthless!
While you're stealing everyone's money, you also steal other things: Guns, keys, jewelry, tools, medical supplies and anything else you can get.
Since the illness only affected people, not plants or other animals, most of the zoo animals escape from the zoo. They are scared, hungry and mad. They start wandering around the city, searching for food and shelter. Most of them start eating dead people. But a few Pythons, Elephants, Lions, wild dogs, Monkeys and large birds start chasing you. The animals back you into a corner of a building. You can't run, because vicious animals are blocking your way!
You quickly grab one of the guns you stole from a dead guy. Instinctively, you point the 357 Magnum at the largest bully, in this case, it's the Elephant. You cap off one bullet into its head. But, that doesn't stop the beast. He's even angrier now. You pull the trigger again, but the gun jams! You throw it on the ground and grab another gun, this time, it's a 9 mm. You manage to kill all the hungry animals.
But, now you have more problems. Satellites are crashing into the atmosphere from space. They explode when they hit the Earth's Ionosphere. Chunks of metal and other debris are raining in all around you. You run into a building. Some pieces of the satellites crash through the roof at 100 MPH, almost hitting your head!
Because of all the things happening at the moment, most of the buildings have caught on fire!
Without thinking, you grab your cellphone and call the fire department. Then, you realize that there is no phone service! All the firefighters and people at the phone company are probably all dead to!
You quickly run down to the Subway to take shelter.
You notice there's no light down there. You grab a lighter out of your pocket. But you smell a strong oder of natural gas and dead bodies! Realizing that it would be a bad idea to use it, you put the lighter away, so you don't blow the place up. You continue walking through the dark and stepping on dead bodies. You hear strange noises, then something is biting your ankle. With no people around, the rats are free to run all around and one of them just chose you for its next meal!
Continuing to feel your way around in the dark, you notice the Subway train has jumped off the tracks and tipped over,after having run over about 50 dead people!
You are starting to go crazy with anxiety and scream for help because there's nothing else to do! "I can't stay here." you think. But, if you go upstairs, the zoo animals will eat you alive!
You stop and think for a minute and remember that you were a Green Beret in the US Army for 10 years. Utilizing your Special Forces training, you manage to hide and evade the ferocious animals. You walk quietly up the stairs and find a car that is not wrecked. You drive home with hopes that your family's still there. You soon get home and find that your entire family is dead!
Now you just get more depressed and scared.
You jump back in the car that you just acquired and drive to the grocery store. When you get a mile down the road, you find a case of beer and a large bag of Marijuana. Realizing that there's no cops around to stop you, you start drinking the beer and smoking weed. It calms your mind for a while.
When you arrive at the local Walmart, you walk around in the dark, trying not to step on all the dead bodies! You grab all the food and beer that will fit in your car. Then you realize that all the perishable food will be moldy and rotten soon and nobody is around to restock it.
When you leave the store, you drive around to clear your mind and look for any other human survivor. But, you drove 250 miles and now you are low on gas. You get to the nearest gas station and the pumps don't work! You find another car, hotwire it and drive away. This car was not the best choice, because when you hit the brakes, they don't work! The car won't stop! Since you didn't use the seatbelt, the vehicle crashed into a truck that was hauling dynamite and you go flying through the windshield! You were driving as fast as the car could go (about 300 MPH). You suffer several broken bones and other traumatic injuries. Then the dynamite blows up. You are severely burned in the worst pain you've ever felt. But, you are a former Green Beret, so you remember what the Army taught you about pain: "Suck it up and drive on!" You try your best to ignore the pain, like your Sergeants taught you in Special Forces.
You manage to keep walking despite the pain, broken bones and major blood loss.
You realize that there's not a single doctor that can help you now. But, you find a needle and thread, stich yourself up and force your bones back into place.
As you keep walking, you decide the pain is just too much for you to take. You find some rat poison and eat a whole box of it. Then you shoot yourself in the head with a 44 magnum.
The gun knocked you to the ground and put a big hole in your head, but you didn't die! Remember your wish: "I wish to live forever!"
This is just day ONE of the rest of your life! Things will only get much worse from here!
For example: Eventually all the buildings will collapse. There will be severe rain and snow storms. Meteors will hit the Earth. Nuclear power plants will meltdown. You'll get old and sick, but nobody can help you. There will be another ice age that might last 1,000 years or more. Cars and other modern things we have today won't work forever.
The Sun will swell up to become a Red Giant. It will completely swallow up Mercury and Venus. It will get so close to Earth that it will be to hot for anything (except you) to survive here. Then it will collapse into a very densely packed, very heavy, small and cold, White Dwarf star.
The Moon will either float away, crash into Earth or explode. Whatever happens to the Moon won't be good. Without the Moon, life would not be possible on Earth! But, I'll write a blog about that later.
In about two or three Million years, the Milky Way Galaxy will crash violently into the Andromeda Galaxy. The two galaxies will merge and become one giant galaxy called the "Milkomeda Galaxy".
The entire Universe will eventually die out. Everything will fall apart. The atoms of literally everything will start to separate and all that will be left is a mysterious substance that Scientists don't understand, they've never actually seen it and they don't know exactly what it is, it's called: "Dark Matter".
The Dark Matter will will disappear eventually to. Leaving nothing absolutely nothing behind in the Universe.
You will be left floating around in a place that used to be known as "outer space. But, you will have no air to breath, no food or water and no human or or other living companions left!
Of course you will still be alive, because, remember, you asked for it!
Eventually, you get lucky though, a wormhole opens up and transports you to another dimension. A world that is really strange. Nothing is the same as it was in your old Universe. All the laws of Physics, Chemistry and other forms of Science and Math are completely different in the new. Universe.
Even though you do meet some new friends, they are aliens from the new world and they don't even speak your same language. Now, all your English and any other human language you speak is totally useless, however, within a few years, you learn the new alien language.
But, in a few Million years, everybody will die off there to, everyone except you and you will end up in the same situation again!

 I can't explain what Dark Matter is, because even Scientists don't know what it is. However,Scientists do know that something exists that we can't see. Most of what we call "Empty space" might not be empty, it might be full of Dark Matter. Scientists even think that Dark Matter, whatever it is, could the most common substance in the Universe and outer space along with the space between planets and Everything right in front of your eyes that is not a solid or liquid object that you can see, the space between you and that visible object might be full of Dark Matter. If that's true, then about 99% of the Universe is all Dark Matter!