One Way Ticket To Mars

[Donut]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6QoEEGySGm4#!

It sounds like a science-fiction fantasy, but the company Mars One says it's for real—and that it will really establish a settlement on the planet Mars by 2023.

The privately financed Dutch company has a plan. All it needs is a lot of cash, equipment and four Mars-bound astronauts who are willing to take a one-way trip to the red planet.

The idea is to first send rovers, which will stake out a good site for a settlement and then build out living units. In 2022, the crew will take a "transit habitat" for the seven-month trip to Mars and settle in to their new home. The intention is that the crew will live on the planet for the rest of their lives. Every two years after that, another group will join the settlement to populate the colony.

Mars One co-founder Bas Lansdorp has a very modern approach to funding the project: media exposure. "We will finance this mission by creating the biggest media event ever around it." He said in a company video, adding, "Everybody in the world can see everything that will happen in the preparations and on Mars."

Think of it as a "Big Brother" for outer space. Lansdorp explained to Yahoo! News, "This would be 'real' reality TV -- adventure is automatically included, we don't have to add fake challenges." He added, "By sending a new crew every two years, Mars will have a real, growing settlement of humans -- who would not like to follow that major event in human history?"

Who, indeed? The other-worldly idea has certainly intrigued the Web. The Mars One video has received over 232,000 views on YouTube since it launched less than a week ago.

Beyond entertainment, some scientists certainly seem intrigued by the possibility of interplanetary travel. Theoretical physicist and Nobel Prize winner Gerard 't Hooft, a "mission ambassador" for Mars One, endorses the plan. He says, "This project seems to be the only way to fulfill humanity's dream to explore outer space. It's going to be an exciting experiment."

Next year, according to its website, the company will begin an astronaut selection process. Those who have the right stuff will then undergo a decade of preparation. And, we assume, the Mars travelers will be ready for their out-of-this-world close-up.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/upshot/mars-one-one-way-ticket-red-planet-192011042.html

 

[redhawk23]

There are so many questions surrounding this.

There's really no reason outside of cost that this has to be a one way trip. Even if the people are going to live there long term, work could be done to build a return craft in the meantime.


Also is everyone going to be sterilized before the trip? It'd be terrible if children were conceived in this environment.

Or worse yet, what kind of psychological profiling is going to be done with these people. Once on Mars what will stop this from becoming an absolutely terrible situation human interactionwise?

What happens when interest wanes and the ratings crash? Because they definitely will.

This sounds like the set up for a satirical science fiction story.

 

[Spider-Who?]

Psychological profiling, like all space endeavors, would be a HUGE aspect of it, I'm sure, because you're right, putting a bunch of people into a confined and stressful environment is asking for trouble. But it's not like they'll be grabbing people of the street, like Nasas requirements, it will an extremely long list of requirements to even be considered.

I'm very interested in seeing where this goes.

 

[The Question]

We do have to remember that colonization isn't exactly new. People confined to a cramped space for months on a one way trip to a completely foreign place? Happened with the Mayflower. Obviously space and sailing are two very different things, but there is a president and protocol for this kind of thing.

 

[Mandalore464]

Edit : Deleted

 

[Mike_D202]

I'm curious what they're gonna do for food.

 

[Mandalore464]

Edit : Deleted

 

[Thundercrack85]

This is such an unrealistic idea. Simply getting a man to Mars would be the greatest achievement in human history. Setting up a colony would take decades of planning and a percentage of the GDP.

 

[Quasimod0]

I wont be signing up for this.

 

[Mandalore464]

Edit : Deleted

 

[Manic]

I really want to make a David Bowie reference, but I'm drawing a blank.


Quick, somebody clever make a Life On Mars, Ziggy, or Space Oddity joke!

 

[Mike_D202]

MARS joke? Naw...SNICKERS joke? Yes.

*Astronaut sits in his 5x5 bunker on Mars bored*

"Not going anywhere for a while?"

*pulls out a Snickers bar*

 

[Destructus86]

Tell me that's a viral for some game or movie...

I mean, how can you seriously be interested in going to a rock for the rest of your life? I would go for a week, a month, perhaps a year.

But what the hell do you do after you've seen that there's basically nothing to do out there, other than what you brought along with you (are you allowed video games in your check-in luggage?).

I guess this would end with serious cases of isolation breakdowns. Great.

There's plenty of science to be had. It'll take them the rest of their life to study the planet.

 

[redhawk23]

^ You're forgetting however that this is being driven by a reality show, not a scientific endeavor, not saying there won't be some add on things to this, but that is still the project a play here.

 

[Thundercrack85]

The only ones who will even be capable of going to Mars are the United States, Europe, China, and possibly India. And that won't happen for another 20 years at the earliest.

 

[Motown Marvel]

developing a base at the shackelton crater on the moon would be a far more logical first step in regards to space travel/colonization.

this is very cool none the less. it'd be amazing if it happened.

 

[Thundercrack85]

developing a base at the shackelton crater on the moon would be a far more logical first step in regards to space travel/colonization.

Yes, but the glory of being the first Martian is a lot greater.