If I had the chance to go to Mars, would I?

Since I feel it's unfair to ask questions without supplying your own response, here is my thoughts on today's poll.

At first, it seems like an easy question--right? Who hasn't ever wanted to go to space? As a child, you look up at the moon and think: "It would be awesome to walk there!" But then I got to thinking. The moon is one thing, but Mars? That's like, hundreds of thousands of miles further into space (See Figure A).

Fig. A

Sure, it'd be a thrill of a lifetime, but perhaps I'm best Earth-bound. If a silly thing like a roller-coaster freaks me out, then who's to say that when we're on our outward trip to Mars that we don't run into a major failure? I'd crumble under the pressure I'm sure, and jeopardize the entire mission. Why should I ruin our chances of landing there, and solving scientific mysteries that could revolutionize the way we perceive space as we know it.

That would be unfair to the kind people of Earth. And truth be told, I don't want my name spread across any future history textbooks labeled as:

"THAT KID WHO RUINED EXPEDITION MARS"

Not good press.