Then quickly I am brought back to Earth by thinking that I will never see my family, friends or pets again.
I wonder how many of these "thousands" of applicants have truly though this through and could actually do it.
On Mars if a small piece of equipment fails in your shelter, that's it. It's not like you can go outside and breathe some fresh air for a bit.
The grass does not look that green in Mars
Most Irish left for America during the potato famine so didn't really have much choice in the matter - it was emigrate or starve.
For most part, they were also unaware if their future was going to be better or worse, so there in offered great reward.
From my perspective, yes studying the Mars environment would be interesting but not worth leaving everything behind. If however there were life forms on Mars or something "better" than what's available on Earth, then it might be an interesting prospect.