CALGARY — Sending humans to colonize Mars would be a suicide mission, former Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk said Friday.

Thirsk, who holds the Canadian space endurance record with 204 days in orbit, said a private Netherlands-based group's plan to send 24 people to settle the red planet in a decade is a death wish.

During his six-month stint aboard the International Space Station in 2009, Thirsk said he spent much of his time repairing equipment like CO2 scrubbers and the craft's toilet.

That doesn't give him much confidence in Mars One's plans.

"I don't think we're ready ... we don't yet have the reliable technology to support a one-way trip to Mars," Thirsk said in Calgary Friday.

"It's naive to think we're ready to colonize Mars — it'd be a suicide mission."

He said such a voyage to Mars would take six to nine months.

Calgarian Zac Trolley, 31, who's on a short list of 705 hopefuls on the Mars One sweepstakes, called Thirsk's comments "absolutely ridiculous.

"It's not a suicide mission. It sounds like you're intending to die and no one wants to put themselves in harm's way and intentionally die," the electrical engineer said.

He said any form of space travel comes with risks, adding the lunar module Eagle was never tested before it first touched down on the Moon in 1969.

Trolley said he respects Thirsk's expertise and expects to meet him at an International Space University course this summer in Montreal.

"I want to hear about the problems he's had working on the space station and fix them, find solutions," he said.

bill.kaufmann@sunmedia.ca