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(https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/601026_380977028617379_476537395_n.jpg)
Mission, Vision and Feasibility
Mars One (http://mars-one.com/)’s mission objective
Mars One plans to establish the first human settlement on Mars by April 2023. The first crew of four astronauts emigrate to their new planet from Earth, a journey that takes seven months. A new team will join the settlement every two years. By 2033 there will be over twenty people living, working and flourishing on Mars, their new home.
The vision of Mars One
A manned mission to Mars is one of the most exciting, inspiring and ambitious adventures that mankind can take on. We see this as a journey that belongs to us all, and it is for this reason that we will make every step one that we take together. This will also be our way to finance the mission: the mission to Mars will be the biggest media event ever!
The entire world will be able to watch and help with decisions as the teams of settlers are selected, follow their extensive training and preparation for the mission and of course observe their settling on Mars once arrived. The emigrated astronauts will share their experiences with us as they build their new home, conduct experiments and explore Mars. The mission itself will provide us with invaluable scientific and social knowledge that will be accessible to everyone, not just an elite select few. Join us in this adventure. Put it on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or whatever platforms are available to you, and spread the word!
A realistic plan
The Mars One team has worked on this plan since early 2011. That first year saw us research the feasibility of the idea extensively and exhaustively, scrutinizing every detail with countless specialists and expert organizations. In this analysis we not only included the technical elements, but also comprehensively discussed the financial, psychological and ethical aspects.
We have met with several established, international aerospace companies who can design and deliver the essential hardware components for the Mars mission. These have written letters of interest that support our plan.
We have an impressive list of people who support the mission to Mars, our ambassadors. One of them is professor dr. Gerard 't Hooft, Physics Nobel Prize winner of 1999.
We were this thorough in our preparations for a reason. A project as ambitious as sending a manned mission to Mars can only be presented credibly when it can stand on its own two feet. We have a feasible plan and a way to finance it. We are ready to go, will you join us?
they have a project, they have the suppliers and a forseeable timeline, but they have no money.. at least, till now.
the plan is to broadcast everything and make it a "Big Brother" show. this will attract potential sponsors in their view.
but who wants to watch Big Brother in space every day? (besides a bunch of SMACers, of course)
so, is this really going to happen or not?
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You know I root more than a little for space exploration, but I bet not.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QoEEGySGm4&feature=player_embedded# (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QoEEGySGm4&feature=player_embedded#)
Mars One: One-way ticket to the red planet
By Claudine Zap | The Upshot – Tue, Jun 5, 2012.. .
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 (http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/upshot/mars-one-one-way-ticket-red-planet-192011042.html)
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Saying they get the money to get it built and get people up there. There's no escape plan at all. One way trip, period, with no benchmarks for what that environment would do to the human body. And the cost to provide food/water/air would be absolutely atrocious.
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Yeah; that's talking billions -- quite a few of them, overall -- which is a mighty optimistic revenue projection for a TV show.
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As one of your Presidents said: "It's the economy, stupid."
Much as I'd be a supporter of this (and trust the Dutch to go a-colonizing) the business model seems 'weak'.
The similarity to Big Brother (and Heliconia) are clear but insufficient economically except in the short term - people get bored, and there ain't going to be any "vote-outs" because this isn't Martian Chronicles either.
My suggestion to them would be to play for 'suspense' value by aiming to form a colony, but starting by mining a moon for revenue and sending smallish chunks back to Terran orbit (where the market is after all) via slow, low-energy transfer orbits.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Transport_Network (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Transport_Network)
Thought I heard some buzz earlier in the year about Google wanting to mine asteroids in a similar manner. Might be these guys need to talk to Google.
The point I'm making is this; early explorers to the New World didn't go there out of altruism, the British, French, Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish went for loot pure and simple.
Besides which, a "mining venture" has one huge advantage that the colonizing proponents have not mentioned. It doesn't inoculate the body of Mars itself with recent Earth biota, something that exploration missions take great efforts to minimize or even avoid completely.
The upshot of that is that the scientific community will scream bloody murder about a proposed colony - but maybe not about a 'moonmine'.
Also, since the energetics for return orbits are reasonable with the ITN, going to Mars wouldn't be a life sentence necessarily, even though the medical problems of long term low-G living are probably a big negative.
Just my 10 €-cents. I'm thinking more Space Family Stone and Outland than BB :)
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Reality Show on Mars Could Fund Manned Colony by 2023
By Mike Wall | SPACE.com – Tue, Jun 26, 2012...
A Dutch company aims to land humans on Mars by 2023 as the first step toward establishing a permanent colony on the Red Planet.
The project, called Mars One, plans to drop four astronauts on Mars in April 2023. New members of the nascent colony will arive every two years after that, and none of the Red Planet pioneers will ever return to Earth.
To pay for all of this, Mars One says it will stage a media spectacle the likes of which the world has never seen — a sort of interplanetary reality show a la "Big Brother."
"This project seems to be the only way to fulfill humanity's dream to explore outer space," theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate Gerard 't Hooft, an ambassador for Mars One, said in an introductory video posted on the company's website. "It is going to be an exciting experiment. Let's get started." [7 Biggest Mysteries of Mars]
The plan
Mars One hopes to launch a communications satellite and a supply mission to Mars in 2016, then send a large rover to the Red Planet in 2018, according to the video.
This rover will scout out suitable sites for the new Mars colony. The company will then launch settlement components — such as habitat units, life-support equipment and another rover — in 2020. The two rovers will prepare the settlement for the arrival of the first humans in 2023.
Mars One officials say they've talked to a variety of private spaceflight companies around the world and have secured at least one potential supplier for each colony component.
They plan to launch many components on SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket, for example, which is expected to be the world's most powerful launch vehicle when it starts flying. The Falcon Heavy is still in development, and SpaceX officials have said the rocket's first test flight could come as early as next year.
A media spectacle
Mars One estimates that it will cost about $6 billion to put the first four astronauts on Mars. While this may seem like a daunting sum for a non-governmental entity, the company is confident it can raise the needed funds by selling corporate sponsorships.
"We will finance this mission by creating the biggest media event ever around it," Mars One co-founder Bas Landorp said in the video. "Everybody in the world can see everything that will happen in the preparations and on Mars."
If all goes according to Mars One's plans, companies looking to advertise will pay big bucks for that exposure.
"This is going to be a media spectacle; 'Big Brother' will pale in comparison," 't Hooft said. "The whole world will be watching and experience this journey."
Mars One will begin selecting its first group of astronauts in 2013, according to its website. Though the company just made its plans public in the last few weeks, it's been developing them in secret since January 2011, officials said.
Mars One isn't the only organization with its eyes on putting boots on Mars. President Barack Obama directed NASA to work on getting astronauts to the vicinity of the Red Planet by the mid-2030s, and SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has said his company hopes to fly people to Mars within the next 10 or 20 years.
http://news.yahoo.com/reality-show-mars-could-fund-manned-colony-2023-134519052.html (http://news.yahoo.com/reality-show-mars-could-fund-manned-colony-2023-134519052.html)
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Private Manned Mars Mission Gets First Sponsors
By SPACE.com Staff | SPACE.com – 22 hrs ago.. .
A Dutch company that aims to land humans on Mars in 2023 as the vanguard of a permanent Red Planet colony has received its first funding from sponsors, officials announced this week.
Mars One plans to fund most of its ambitious activities via a global reality-TV media event, which will follow the mission from the selection of astronauts through their first years on the Red Planet. But the sponsorship money is important, helping the company — which had been self-funded for the last 18 months — get to that point, officials said Wednesday (Aug. 29).
"Receipt of initial sponsorship marks the next step to humans setting foot on Mars," Mars One founder and president Bas Lansdorp said in a statement. "A little more than a year ago we embarked down this path, calling upon industry experts to share in our bold dream. Today, we have moved from a technical plan into the first stage of funding, giving our dream a foundation in reality."
Initial sponsors include Byte Internet (a Dutch Internet/Webhosting provider); Dutch lawfirm VBC Notarissen; Dutch consulting company MeetIn; New-Energy.tv (an independent Dutch web station that focuses on energy and climate); and Dejan SEO (an Australia-based search engine optimization firm). [Video: 'Big Brother' on Mars?]
"Mars One is not just a daring project, but the core of what drives human spirit towards exploration of the unknown. We are privileged to be a supporter of this incredible project," said Dan Petrovic, general director of Dejan SEO.
Mars One aims to launch a series of robotic missions between 2016 and 2020 that will build a habitable outpost on the Red Planet. The first four astronauts will set foot on Mars in 2023, and more will arrive every two years after that. There are no plans to return these pioneers to Earth.
Company officials say they've talked to a variety of private spaceflight firms around the world and have secured at least one supplier for every major piece of the Mars colony mission. The corporate sponsorship money will be used mostly to fund the conceptual design studies provided by the aerospace suppliers, each of which require 500 to 2,500 man-hours to complete, officials said.
Mars One estimates that it will cost about $6 billion to put the first four humans on the Red Planet. The company hopes the "Big Brother"-style reality show will pay most of these costs. The televised action is slated to begin in 2013, when Mars One begins the process of selecting its 40-person astronaut corps.
http://news.yahoo.com/private-manned-mars-mission-gets-first-sponsors-125349095.html?_esi=1 (http://news.yahoo.com/private-manned-mars-mission-gets-first-sponsors-125349095.html?_esi=1)
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...Initial sponsors include Byte Internet (a Dutch Internet/Webhosting provider); Dutch lawfirm VBC Notarissen; Dutch consulting company MeetIn; New-Energy.tv (an independent Dutch web station that focuses on energy and climate); and Dejan SEO (an Australia-based search engine optimization firm). [Video: 'Big Brother' on Mars?]...
that's what? ::) 0.01% of the budget rounded up? ;D
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...Initial sponsors include Byte Internet (a Dutch Internet/Webhosting provider); Dutch lawfirm VBC Notarissen; Dutch consulting company MeetIn; New-Energy.tv (an independent Dutch web station that focuses on energy and climate); and Dejan SEO (an Australia-based search engine optimization firm). [Video: 'Big Brother' on Mars?]...
that's what? ::) 0.01% of the budget rounded up? ;D
At least 0.01%
Methinks they need to 'entice' some of the 0.01% to come on board - it just might appeal to the vanity/hubris of the Bransons/Gateses/Zuckerthings.. Branson would be my fave, let's face it, HE'LL be up suborbital within two years.
But any 'name' would require Mars-->Earth upgrade planing. Not an impossibility either.
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..Branson would be my fave, let's face it, HE'LL be up suborbital within two years.
would be nice to have Branson onboard this project but this is not his 'baby'. he likes too much his own ideas to get involved in this.
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Branson does seem to like himself, doesn't he?
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Branson does seem to like himself, doesn't he?
indeed:
(http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/flight-international/assets_c/2011/01/Branson%20AirAsia%20uniform-thumb-300x824-110643.jpg)
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Branson does seem to like himself, doesn't he?
indeed:
(http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/flight-international/assets_c/2011/01/Branson%20AirAsia%20uniform-thumb-300x824-110643.jpg)
That's our gal!!!!!!!! ;D
..Branson would be my fave, let's face it, HE'LL be up suborbital within two years.
would be nice to have Branson onboard this project but this is not his 'baby'. he likes too much his own ideas to get involved in this.
Just need to convince him that it's his idea to 'bring them back'. Once he's had a bit of suborbital '100-mile high club' (or whatever) he'll be tempted to throw in.
Branson does seem to like himself, doesn't he?
He always has. But he's a shrewd businessman for all of his egocentric vanity. I even owned shares in his outfit when he took it public nearly 30 years ago. He also pretty soon after, took it private again. No-one lost money!). Whisper the big Mars deal in his ear - convince him that there's a high-probability return strategy and I bet he'd bite. He'd also be looking to turn a profit on the deal too - and probably would on past form.
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There's that - he gets results, and he loves flamboyant, high-profile projects.
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There's that - he gets results, and he loves flamboyant, high-profile projects.
Looks like a (high-heeled) shoe-in... ;domai;
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Looks like a (high-heeled) shoe-in... ;domai;
we have a new faction leader!
a SMAC 'Virgin' faction anyone?
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Okay, sorta another Morgan. Going to Alpha Centauri certainly sounds like something he'd do.
Portrait's not problem, and neither should the logo be - how about bases and diplomacy landscape?
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we have a new faction leader!
a SMAC 'Virgin' faction anyone?
Leader predicates EXPLORE, BUILD.
-1GROWTH (raving cross-dressers have little interest in bio-reproduction)
+1WEALTH (accomplished monopolists)
-4PROBE (very shy)
+50% hurry (you want it, you pay for it)
FREEFAC Punishment Sphere - with relevant tech (tough luck with the research)
2% INTEREST
Starts with NO free tech.
Any offers?
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... - how about bases and diplomacy landscape?
this is what a google search gives us:
(http://www.design42day.com/uploads/2009/06/Spaceport-Foster-%2B-Partners-3.jpg)
(http://www.blogcdn.com/www.switched.com/media/2009/06/2009.06.22spaceport3125.jpg)
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Which is which, you think?
we have a new faction leader!
a SMAC 'Virgin' faction anyone?
Leader predicates EXPLORE, BUILD.
-1GROWTH (raving cross-dressers have little interest in bio-reproduction)
+1WEALTH (accomplished monopolists)
-4PROBE (very shy)
+50% hurry (you want it, you pay for it)
FREEFAC Punishment Sphere - with relevant tech (tough luck with the research)
2% INTEREST
Starts with NO free tech.
Any offers?
Great!
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Pretty impressive stuff sisko.
The retro-French toilet seat base look works for me (somehow) . Either are great Diplos.
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Which is which, you think?
we have a new faction leader!
a SMAC 'Virgin' faction anyone?
Leader predicates EXPLORE, BUILD.
-1GROWTH (raving cross-dressers have little interest in bio-reproduction)
+1WEALTH (accomplished monopolists)
-4PROBE (very shy)
+50% hurry (you want it, you pay for it)
FREEFAC Punishment Sphere - with relevant tech (tough luck with the research)
2% INTEREST
Starts with NO free tech.
Any offers?
Great!
I'm sorely tempted to CTRL-Q my current game, mock a faction up with those specs and give it a whirl.
It was only two minutes of cogitation, a suggestion, mods welcome.
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Okay, I'm running on only a few hours of sleep, and need to take a nap, but I think I can slap something together before y'all get up tomorrow.
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The 'somebody called' random event triggered and I got sidetracked, but here's the most time-consuming bit, the leaderhead, already dropped in. Hopefully, my brain will be more functional tomorrow.
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Looks V nice BU.
Weren't you tempted to chop him a ponytail like Santiago / Sven? (I think it's great 'as is')
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Never occurred to me...
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The 'somebody called' random event triggered and I got sidetracked, but here's the most time-consuming bit, the leaderhead, already dropped in. Hopefully, my brain will be more functional tomorrow.
I've got one of those 'random events' tomorrow afternoon.
(True story)
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Yeah.
Here's the logo. I hue-shifted the Virgin Galactic logo to a golden color.
The bases are gonna be some work...
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And they were, but now 'tis done.
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OMG! LOL...
Well, he made a fortune selling 1 USD (or less) to make CDs for 20 USD a pop in his Virgin Megastores that were located in the top 50 US cities. Now that the internet killed all that, he branches out.
Virgin Mobile actually is a pretty good deal. In fact I use cell phone, game and post online through a tether at 200- 300 ms, no stupid contract, decent service. I often joke to the Virgin Mobile counterperson that i am making another payment on Spaceship2 whe I pay phone/internet. I still say his Virgin galactic is just an expensive rollercoaster ride. Elon Musk and Bigalowe have it more nailed.
But.. back on topic.
Mars one seems like the "space elevator project". A money sink going nowhere.
No... you do not want to film every move or have some corp on earth owning "rights" to intellectuall property on Mars. The lack of privacy is asking for animosity. You want to go like Morgan with a combo of Miriam. Freedom. But, there is no freedom when only "the select few" can escape. You also need industrial base to make things out of stuff there. To quote SMAX, "One does not create a dataprobe out of sand....."
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Weellll, it seems like a Branson faction ought to have a dash of retail/entertainment/shipping/communications to it - though how you'd get that across any more than they did with Morgan, I don't know. I've argued before that Morgan is Donald [Sleezebag] - which is fairly true as far as personality. But Branson is closer as far as diversity of business interests, and for that matter, in that backing the Unity project and then stowing away sounds more like Branson.
...
I'd think that the privacy concerns vis the reality show wouldn't be the problem. The sort of people who make good astronauts are very careful, self-controled folks, the sort who line up their shoes a certain way at bedtime and practice fantastic impulse control. How would the producers get them to fight, and badmouth each other in interviews?
The drink/screw/squabble sorts that populate these things aren't my idea of good TV at all, but if they didn't get over with most people, those shows would be different.
I doubt anyone planing this has considered it; a group of ice-cold workaholic PhDs talking about their work is hardly going to make for $2.6-billion-dollar TV. It'll tank pretty fast if the mission goes well.
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Virgin Faction
Leader: Sir Richard Branson
AGENDA: Free Market
AVERSIONS: Fundamentalism.
CANNOT SELECT FUNDAMENTALISM SOCIAL CHOICE.
+1 POLICE. RFID tags and cameras in every area including bathrooms.
-2 MORALE. Tons of games and holoreels makes population less anxious to go outside and fight.
FREE REC COMMONS ALL BASES.
Starting Technologies: Social Psych, Industrial Base.
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8)
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Taken your Branson.pcx out for a 'Test-toast' with a TXT file I knocked together, filling the Branson2 and 3 slots with Hive clones for the moment.
BUncle, it looks seriously nice on the landscape!
Can't say quite the same about the gameplay, I might have handicapped him too much. I'll post a copy of it as soon as I've given it a bit more testing.
(He*l, I don't have a monopoly on assigning fac parameters; but I did give him a penalty for Fundamentalism...)
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Taken your Branson.pcx out for a 'Test-toast' with a TXT file I knocked together, filling the Branson2 and 3 slots with Hive clones for the moment.
BUncle, it looks seriously nice on the landscape!
Can't say quite the same about the gameplay, I might have handicapped him too much. I'll post a copy of it as soon as I've given it a bit more testing.
(He*l, I don't have a monopoly on assigning fac parameters; but I did give him a penalty for Fundamentalism...)
We'll need to see a screeny, then.
Of course, we want to post the final product in downloads when it's ready. I've enjoyed working on a number of community projects, but few get completed.
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We'll need to see a screeny, then.
Of course, we want to post the final product in downloads when it's ready. I've enjoyed working on a number of community projects, but few get completed.
That's going to likely be problematic. ANY other game I could cap a screeny, but SMACX is THE one exception. Doesn't matter if I have Photoshop 7 running in the b/g, whatever I cap is acidhouse.
But I can attach a copy of the fileset later on today. I'm just knocking a few typos out atm. It's been unusual gameplay on a huge planet map.
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Screenshots is easy when you know how; tab out of the game (Windows key, or something of the sort) and paste WHILE the game's still running. It'll still look wrong at the moment, but when you exit the game, the colors will be right.
I'm splitting off the modding stuff to the appropriate forum...
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Done. I'm no topic nazi, but it seemed best to put the modding in the Modding forum and keep this on Mars One.
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Sounds like a plan
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The other thread is A spontaneous community faction project. (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=2264.0) I bet we can solve your screenshot problem there...
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OK then.
I'm turning in for the night after a busy and varied day.
I'll check the link after some Rand R.
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Wanted: Mars Colonists to Explore Red Planet
By SPACE.com Staff | SPACE.com – 19 hrs ago.. .
If you think you have the right stuff to help colonize Mars, you'll soon get your chance to prove it.
The Netherlands-based nonprofit Mars One, which hopes to put the first boots on the Red Planet in 2023, released its basic astronaut requirements today (Jan. 8), setting the stage for a televised global selection process that will begin later this year.
Mars One isn't zeroing in on scientists or former fighter pilots; anyone who is at least 18 years old can apply to become a Mars colony pioneer. The most important criteria, officials say, are intelligence, good mental and physical health and dedication to the project, as astronauts will undergo eight years of training before launch.
"Gone are the days when bravery and the number of hours flying a supersonic jet were the top criteria," Norbert Kraft, Mars One's chief medical director and a former NASA researcher, said in a statement. "Now, we are more concerned with how well each astronaut works and lives with the others, in the long journey from Earth to Mars and for a lifetime of challenges ahead."
Mars One plans to launch a series of robotic cargo missions between 2016 and 2021, which will build a habitable Red Planet outpost ahead of the arrival of the first four colonists in 2023. More settlers will arrive every two years after that. There are no plans to return the pioneers to Earth. [Mars One: 'Big Brother' on Mars? (Video)]
The organization will fund most of its ambitious activities by staging a global reality-TV event that follows the colonization effort from astronaut selection through the settlers' first years on Mars.
Mars One, which transitioned from a private company to a nonprofit late last year, has already received a number of inquiries from prospective colonists, officials said.
"Well before the official Astronaut Selection Program, we received more than 1,000 emails from individuals who desire to go to Mars," Suzanne Flinkenflögel, Mars One's communications director, said in a statement. "We are working hard to launch our selection campaign as soon as possible, to open the doors to everyone who aspires to do something tremendous in their lifetime."
Final astronaut candidates will be selected after review by Mars One experts and a global TV event. Those chosen will be employed by Mars One during their Earth-based training and for the length of their time on the Red Planet, officials said.
To learn more about the selection process, go to www.thenextgiantleap.com (http://www.thenextgiantleap.com).
http://news.yahoo.com/wanted-mars-colonists-explore-red-planet-204754693.html (http://news.yahoo.com/wanted-mars-colonists-explore-red-planet-204754693.html)
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This thread should be retitled the Birth of Branson.
I'd suggest though
Agenda: Free Market
Aversions: Democracy (The only choice in his faction... Virgin.)
Bonuses:
Economy +1
Efficiency -1
Police +1
Environment -1 All that communications and chatter is bound to piss off the mindworms.
Free Hologram theaters.
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Davy actually got something playable put together before he went missing - check the Mars threads in Modding.
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Mars Colony Project Lands First Investors
By Mike Wall | SPACE.com – 4 hrs ago.. .
A nonprofit organization that aims to land four astronauts on Mars in 2023 has attracted its first investors for the ambitious $6 billion effort.
The Netherlands-based Mars One has secured investments that will help fund conceptual design studies and its astronaut selection program, both of which are slated to kick off soon, officials announced today (Jan. 29).
"Raising a few million [US dollars] in the coming months may seem insignificant in the shadow of the pending billions required, but we are taking it one step at a time," Kai Staats, director of business development for Mars One, said in a statement. "These first few bring tangible demonstration to nearly two years in planning. For us, committed funds in this phase of development are an important indicator we are moving in the right direction."
Mars One plans to stage a global reality-TV event around the one-way mission, with cameras following every step of the way from astronaut selection to the settlers' first years on the Red Planet. The organization thinks revenues from broadcasting rights and sponsorships will cover most of the costs. [Mars One: 'Big Brother' on Mars? (Video)]
The new investments should help get the ball rolling. Mars One officials say they will use the money to fund conceptual design studies — engineering bids from private spaceflight companies that aim to provide the spaceships, habitat modules and other major components of the Mars colony — beginning in the first half of this year.
Some of the money will also finance Mars One's televised astronaut selection process, which officials have said will also likely launch sometime this year.
Earlier this month, Mars One released its astronaut requirements. Applicants must be at least 18 years old, in good mental and physical health and willing to undergo a training program that will last about eight years.
Managing the selection process could prove challenging, as Mars One anticipates receiving hundreds of thousands of applications from people interested in becoming Mars colonists.
Mars One plans to launch a series of robotic missions between 2016 and 2020 that will build an outpost on the Red Planet. The first four astronauts will arrive in 2023, and more will touch down every two years after that. There are no plans to return these interplanetary pioneers to Earth.
The newly announced investments were secured by the Interplanetary Media Group, a daughter company of Mars One that manages the media and intellectual property associated with the Red Planet colonization mission, officials said.
http://news.yahoo.com/mars-colony-project-lands-first-investors-135027114.html (http://news.yahoo.com/mars-colony-project-lands-first-investors-135027114.html)
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Good to see this is starting to get some cash behind it. ;b;
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Well, there was a newspaper article last month about a Belgian (family) man signing up to the candidate list.
His wife appearantly didn't agree, but he'd done it anyway.
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Mars Colony Project to Begin Astronaut Search in July
By Rob Coppinger, SPACE.com Contributor | SPACE.com – Tue, Apr 16, 2013...
(http://media.zenfs.com/en_US/News/SPACE.com/Mars_Colony_Project_to_Begin-47c48fdfb92d6316ff90863044e2c9df)
Artist's depiction of Mars One astronauts and their colony on the Red Planet.
LONDON — A nonprofit organization that aims to land four astronauts on Mars in 2023 will kick off its two-year, televised search for Red Planet explorers this summer.
The Netherlands-based Mars One will begin accepting application videos in July, charging a fee to weed out folks who aren't serious about their candidacy. The group hopes to raise millions of dollars this way, with the proceeds paying for the ongoing selection process and technology studies.
"We expect a million applications with 1-minute videos, and hopefully some of those videos will go viral,” Mars One co-founder and chief executive officer Bas Lansdorp told SPACE.com on April 10. He was in London to speak to the British Interplanetary Society (BIS) that day.
Mars One now has 45,000 people registered for its mailing list and has already received 10,000 emails from interested individuals, Lansdorp added. [Mars One's Red Planet Colony Project (Gallery)]
A one-way trip to Mars
Mars One is casting a wide net, seeking applicants from all over the world. Application fees will vary from country to country, with folks from poorer nations getting a price break, Lansdorp said. The maximum fee will apparently be $25.
Anyone who is at least 18 years old can apply by sending in a video explaining why he or she should be selected. But prospective colonists must be prepared to say goodbye to Earth forever; there are no plans at this point to bring Mars One astronauts home.
By July 2015, Mars One wants to have 24 astronauts, organized into six teams of four people. Those teams then face seven years of training that will include spending three months at a time in a replica of the Mars colony.
"We will give them all the most stressful situations,” Lansdorp told the BIS audience on April 10, adding that the training base will have a 40-minute communications delay to replicate the time lag that would exist due to the vast distance between Earth and Mars.
Mars One officials expect some individuals and teams to fail these tests, so from 2015 on, the nonprofit will have an annual process to select 12 people (in three teams of four).
"We will always have about 10 groups [of four] in training, so if one group drops out, there will be replacement crews," Lansdorp told SPACE.com. This will continue even after 2023, because Mars One plans to send more colonists to the Red Planet every two years for as long as funding levels will allow.
Interplanetary 'Big Brother'
Mars One estimates that it needs $6 billion to send the first four astronauts to Mars. This money will cover developing the landing systems, habitats, Mars Transit Vehicle (MTV), rovers, solar arrays and other technologies associated with the colony, as well as pay for the crew's journey from Earth.
Every subsequent crew trip would cost $4 billion, Lansdorp told SPACE.com. Just sending a supply lander would cost $250 million.
Mars One plans to raise this money largely through a global reality television series that will follow the colonization effort from astronaut selection to the first landing and the settlement’s expansion.
The audience will vote for who gets to go to Mars from a pool of candidates selected by Mars One’s experts. Lansdorp points to the 2012 London Olympics and the $4 billion it generated from television revenues over its three weeks as evidence that such a funding plan can work.
Meanwhile, the application video revenue will finance early technology studies and prove there is demand for a television show. ['Big Brother' on Mars? (Video)]
“We can prove to the broadcasters that there is real demand and interest, and we will start negotiations after the [astronaut] selection procedure begins,” Lansdorp told SPACE.com.
Beyond the applicant videos and television show, future revenues include crowdfunding, exploiting the technologies developed for Earth’s markets and doing research on Mars for governments. For example, Mars One could eventually send samples of Martian soil to Earth, officials say.
Mission details taking shape
While the Mars spacecraft has yet to be designed, Lansdorp told the BIS audience that for the 210-day journey, the vehicle would have a hollow 660-gallon (2,500 liters) water tank with four compartments.
Astronauts would sleep in this area and use it as shelter from extreme solar radiation events. The water equates to a 9.84-inch (25 centimeters) column for radiation protection, which Lansdorp told the BIS is what NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) suggest for a return mission.
When the first team of four lands at the settlement’s location on April 24, 2023, the settlers will find a colony whose habitats and solar arrays started working before they left Earth. Lansdorp told SPACE.com that the colony will be located between 40 and 45 degrees north latitude.
"We want to be as south as possible for sunlight and north enough for water," he said, adding that the colony would be at a location that is 1.55 miles (2.5 kilometers) lower than Mars’ average ground level, to give the arriving spacecraft more time to land.
The colony will initially have rovers, two habitats, two life support landers and two supply landers. Mars One is designing five types of landers for life support, supplies, habitat and those that land the crew and rovers. The first equipment to be sent to Mars will be a communications satellite, a demonstration rover and a 5,500-pound (2,500 kilograms) supply lander, officials said.
"We have a conceptual rover right now. It is very likely there will be two rovers — one trailer rover and one intelligent rover that does all the advanced tasks,” Lansdorp told SPACE.com. The trailer rover will move landers from their landing point to the settlement, a distance not expected to exceed about 1 mile (1.6 km).
The colony’s habitats will be connected by fabric tunnels and covered in 6 feet (1.8 m) of Martian soil, to provide radiation protection. Lansdorp told the BIS audience that with the colony’s expected outdoor activities, the colonists will get a radiation dose over 10 years equal to that of ESA’s maximum allowed for its astronauts, which he described as “very safe."
At the same time the first team lands, the second crew’s habitat lander will also arrive. As well as being ready for the second crew's 2025 arrival, this habitat can be used by the first crew if they encounter problems with their own equipment.
The colony will have inflatable greenhouses and use water from the Martian soil and nitrogen from the atmosphere to grow crops. The crew will cultivate rice, algae and insects for their high protein content and will also likely grow mushrooms, along with tomatoes and other plants. [The Boldest Mars Missions of All Time]
Tapping private industry
Solar rather than nuclear power will be used for the base, Lansdorp said, and all the landers may be larger versions of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft.
“We’ve discussed upscaling of Dragon capsule with SpaceX,” Lansdorp told the BIS audience.
In March, Mars One announced it had signed a contract with Paragon Space Development Corp. for a conceptual design study into life support and space suit systems.
Paragon has also been contracted by Dennis Tito for his Inspiration Mars project, which aims to launch two people on a Mars flyby mission in 2018 that will neither land on nor orbit the Red Planet. Lansdorp is slated to meet Tito in May in Washington, D.C.
As well as Paragon and SpaceX, Lansdorp is in discussions with Canada’s MDA Robotics for the rovers; Italy’s Thales Alenia Space for the MTV; ILC Dover, Astrobiotic and the U.K.’s Surrey Satellite Technology.
Lansdorp declined to answer questions about how much money Mars One has already raised, saying only that it's enough to start the selection process and to fund the Paragon contract. However, Mars One has named its first investors. Described as silver sponsors, they include Verkkokauppa.com, Finland’s second largest consumer electronics retailer, and Byte Internet, a Web hosting service.
http://news.yahoo.com/mars-colony-project-begin-astronaut-search-july-144550057.html (http://news.yahoo.com/mars-colony-project-begin-astronaut-search-july-144550057.html)
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Want to Live on Mars? Private Martian Colony Project Seeks Astronauts
By Clara Moskowitz | SPACE.com – 20 hrs ago...
NEW YORK — If a one-way trip to Mars appeals to you, now's the time to apply to be part of the first crew of a Red Planet colony.
The Netherlands-based nonprofit Mars One is planning to fly teams of four astronauts to the Red Planet, with the first landing slated to occur in 2023, exactly 10 years from today (April 22), to establish a human settlement on our planetary neighbor. Today, the organization opened up its astronaut selection process, which it hopes will raise some of the funding for the project.
Those over age 18 interested in spending the rest of their lives in space can apply by submitting applications and short videos to the Mars One site. There is no maximum age for applicants, nor a required technical background or even nationality or language — astronaut candidates will have a few years to learn English if they don't speak it already. [Mars One's Red Planet Colony Project (Gallery)]
Successful applicants will have intelligence, resourcefulness, courage, determination and skill, as well as psychological stability, said Mars One ambassador Gerard 't Hooft, a Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist.
"Selecting these people will be a very difficult task," 't Hooft said during a press conference here to announce the selection process. "There shall be no exclusion on the basis of race, nationality, religion and gender."
There will be a minor fee associated with submitting an application, which will range from $5 to $75 depending on the gross national income of the applicant's home country, officials said. The application fee for United States citizens is $38.
Mars One estimates it will need about $6 billion to send the first four inhabitants to start the Red Planet colony, with $4 billion needed to launch each subsequent crew. In addition to the application fees, the organization hopes to raise money via a reality television show that will follow its astronaut selection and training process.
Though a one-way ticket to Mars isn't everyone's idea of a dream getaway, the project's leaders anticipate a high level of enthusiasm for the mission; they've received about 10,000 emails already from people interested in applying. Mars One hopes to recruit astronauts from around the world to create a colony populated by a diverse representation of Earth's inhabitants.
"We want this to be a mission of humanity," Mars One co-founder and chief executive officer Bas Lansdorp told SPACE.com.
Mars One plans to put its astronaut finalists through seven years of training and testing exercises that will expose them to potential situations they might face during the mission. The astronaut trainees will also have to spend some time living in mock Mars colonies on Earth and communicating with Mission Control via a 6 to 20-minute time delay to simulate the lag between a signal being sent and its arrival on Mars.
By July 2015, Mars One plans to have selected its top 24 astronauts, grouped into crews of six.
So far, no spacecraft or rocket has been chosen for the journey, though organization officials say they are considering modifying the Dragon capsule being developed by the private aerospace firm SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corp.). The Mars lander, rovers and habitat modules required will likely have to be designed and built from the ground up, but will be based on existing technology.
"This will not be easy," Lansdorp said. "There is a lot of engineering and testing to be done before the first humans will land. But no new inventions are needed to land humans on Mars. There might be delays, there might be cost overruns, there might even be failures, but it can be done."
The endeavor will begin with an initial test launch to Mars in 2016 to demonstrate the landing technology, with a second mission in 2018 to deliver a robotic rover to scout out landing sites. In 2020 a second rover will launch to Mars to begin assembling some of the first settlers' equipment and habitats, which will be ready and waiting when they land. The trip to Mars will take about seven months.
Mars One has hired the research firm Paragon Space Development Corporation to design the life support technologies needed for the mission.
"There's no doubt that the success of this mission depends on the life support system on the surface of Mars working forever," said Grant Anderson, Paragon chief engineer and co-founder. "To be successful, we have to execute a major and logical problem of applied engineering. We have to do the design, build and then test extensively before we leave."
http://news.yahoo.com/want-live-mars-private-martian-colony-project-seeks-182119773.html (http://news.yahoo.com/want-live-mars-private-martian-colony-project-seeks-182119773.html)
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Private Mars Colony Won't Seek Life on Red Planet
By Mike Wall | SPACE.com – 3 hrs ago...
A private Mars colony project will do its best to avoid disturbing potential Red Planet life rather than aggressively hunt it down.
The Netherlands-based nonprofit Mars One, which opened its astronaut-selection process today (April 22), plans to land four people on the Red Planet in 2023 as the vanguard of a permanent human colony on the Red Planet, with new crews arriving every two years thereafter.
Human explorers and their trillions of microbes will doubtless contaminate whatever site is chosen for the settlement, Mars One officials said, so the organization will try to pick a place unlikely to host indigenous life. [Mars One: Colonizing the Red Planet (Gallery)]
"The most important thing is that you localize the pollution," Mars One CEO and co-founder Bas Lansdorp said during a press conference today. "So you make sure that humans don't go to places where there's the highest chance of finding life, to make sure that if there is life [on Mars], that it will remain preserved."
Mars One is working with experts to minimize the risks its colonization effort may pose to potential Red Planet lifeforms. For example, the group's advisory board includes John Rummel, who chairs the Committee on Space Research's Panel on Planetary Protection, Lansdorp said.
It may be tough to bring those risks down too much. While Mars One hasn't picked a precise location for its settlement yet, the organization is targeting a swath of the Red Planet between 40 and 45 degrees north latitude, Lansdorp said.
Sites within this band likely have enough of two critical resources — subsurface water (in the form of ice) and solar energy — to support a colony, he added. But underground water could also help sustain microbes, whose toughness and near ubiquity continue to amaze scientists, at least here on Earth.
It's unclear at the moment if Mars One— which will fund its ambitious settlement efforts primarily by staging a global reality-TV event around the entire process — will take a serious stab at finding signs of Red Planet life.
Mars One astronauts will not necessarily be scientists, after all. Anyone over the age of 18 is eligible to apply, with the selection committee prizing traits such as intelligence, resourcefulness, determination and psychological stability over academic background, officials said.
"Science is, of course, not the main focus of what we are doing," Lansdorp said. "The main focus is getting those humans there and making sure that they survive."
Crewmembers will take some scientific gear with them, he added, but Mars One officials won't dictate what the experiments should be.
"It's really up to them," Lansdorp said. "There will of course be a budget for equipment that they want to take for scientific research."
http://news.yahoo.com/private-mars-colony-wont-seek-life-red-planet-113808648.html (http://news.yahoo.com/private-mars-colony-wont-seek-life-red-planet-113808648.html)
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78,000 Apply for Private Mars Colony Project In 2 Weeks
By Mike Wall | SPACE.com – Tue, May 7, 2013...
Huge numbers of people on Earth are keen to leave the planet forever and seek a new life homesteading on Mars.
About 78,000 people have applied to become Red Planet colonists with the nonprofit organization Mars One since its application process opened on April 22, officials announced today (May 7). Mars One aims to land four people on the Red Planet in 2023 as the vanguard of a permanent colony, with more astronauts arriving every two years thereafter.
"With 78,000 applications in two weeks, this is turning out to be the most desired job in history," Mars One CEO and co-founder Bas Lansdorp said in a statement. "These numbers put us right on track for our goal of half a million applicants." [Mars One's Red Planet Colony Project (Gallery)]
Mars One estimates that landing four settlers on Mars in 2023 will cost about $6 billion. The Netherlands-based organization plans to pay most of the bills by staging a global reality-TV event, with cameras documenting all phases of the mission from astronaut selection to the colonists' first years on the Red Planet.
The application process extends until Aug. 31. Anyone at least 18 years of age can apply, by submitting to the Mars One website a 1-minute video explaining his or her motivation to become a Red Planet settler. (You can also watch other applicants' videos at the site.)
Mars One charges an application fee, which ranges from $5 to $75 depending on the wealth of the applicant's home country. United States citizens pay $38, Lansdorp said.
When the application process closes, reviewers will pick 50 to 100 candidates from each of the 300 regions around the world that Mars One has identified. By 2015, this pool will be whittled down to a total of 28 to 40 candidates, officials said.
This core group will be split into groups of four, which will train for their one-way Mars mission for about seven years. Finally, an audience vote will pick one of these groups to be humanity's first visitors to the Red Planet.
So far, Mars One has received applications from more than 120 countries, officials said. The United States leads the way with 17,324, followed by China (10,241) and the United Kingdom (3,581). Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Argentina and India round out the top 10.
"Mars One is a mission representing all humanity, and its true spirit will be justified only if people from the entire world are represented," Lansdorp said. "I'm proud that this is exactly what we see happening."
The announcement of Mars One's application flood comes in the middle of a big week for manned Mars exploration. Scientists, engineers, NASA officials and a range of other Red Planet exploration advocates are currently meeting in Washington, D.C. for the Humans 2 Mars summit, which runs through Wednesday (May 8).
And today, famed Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin released his new book, "Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration" (National Geographic Books), which was written with veteran space reporter (and SPACE.com columnist) Leonard David.
http://news.yahoo.com/78-000-apply-private-mars-colony-project-2-195922459.html (http://news.yahoo.com/78-000-apply-private-mars-colony-project-2-195922459.html;_ylt=AmvOmxd496BTsK.uBCfW110PLBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTNubjFyNnJ2BG1pdAMEcGtnA2I3MDNhOWFkLWMwNjQtMzBhNC1iMGY2LTE3ZWE2YjRiN2I2MwRwb3MDMTMEc2VjA2xuX1NwYWNlQXN0cm9ub215X2dhbAR2ZXIDNjJkNjllZDAtYjc1Mi0xMWUyLWJmZmYtNTRmMzAzYjFjNzEz;_ylg=X3oDMTBhYWM1a2sxBGxhbmcDZW4tVVM-;_ylv=3)
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China Media Claim Private Mars Colony Mission Is a Scam
By Mike Wall | SPACE.com – Thu, May 23, 2013..
(http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/nVXr2T3MJOXSkhcBVVBhpA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD0zMjM7cT03OTt3PTU3NQ--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_US/News/SPACE.com/China_Media_Claim_Private_Mars-a55cc1a53304f7003cad4d0b6cdd09f5)
Artist's concept of Mars One astronauts on the Red Planet.
Some people may find it hard to believe that a private mission will succeed in landing four astronauts on Mars in 2023, but several state-run media outlets in China are targeting the project with even harsher terms like "hoax" and "hype."
Doubts have been growing in China about the legitimacy of Mars One, the Netherlands-based nonprofit that seeks to establish a colony on the Red Planet 10 years from now. China's People's Daily newspaper, for example, ran a story Tuesday (May 21) headlined "Settlement on Mars a hoax? Over 10,000 Chinese people fall for it."
The headline refers to the 10,000 people from China who have applied to become Mars One astronauts since the organization opened its selection process last month. (Mars One charges a non-refundable application fee that varies from nation to nation; it's $11 for Chinese applicants and $38 for United States citizens.) [Mars One's Red Planet Colony Project (Gallery)]
Journalists discovered that Mars One's registered address is the home of the organization's co-founder and CEO, Bas Lansdorp, in the Dutch city of Amersfoort, People's Daily reported. And its headquarters are based at a rented office, the paper added.
"When the reporters went to the office of the company, they did not see any sign or logo of Mars One," the newspaper reported. "Lansdorp and his colleagues only occupied a few tables in a large open office area. Therefore, media assumed that Mars One project is probably a commercial scam."
People's Daily also said that "a Chinese scholar" regarded Mars One as "blatant commercial hype."
Mars One officials have fought back against the accusations and insinuations, stressing that their ambitious plans are for real.
"Mars One is making good progress on its plans. We have already contracted an American company to start work on the Environmental Control and Life Support System and Mars Surface Exploration Spacesuit System," Mars One's Aashima Dogra told the Global Times (a People's Daily affiliate) via e-mail, according to People's Daily.
That company is Arizona-based Paragon Space Development Corp., whose deal with Mars One was announced in March. Paragon is also working with the nonprofit Inspiration Mars Foundation on its plan to launch two astronauts on a flyby journey around the Red Planet in January 2018.
Lansdorp weighed in as well, telling yet another newspaper via email that it made sense to register the organization at his home address rather than at a rented office. And though delays are possible, the project remains on schedule at the moment, he added.
"Our plan is very complicated, but we knew that when we started," Lansdorp told China Daily, according to People's Daily. "We are committed to landing humans on Mars in 2023."
Lansdorp and other Mars One officials have stressed that the project is indeed feasible, requiring no big technological leaps.
"This mission is based on existing technology," Lansdorp said Tuesday at the Space Tech Expo 2013 conference in Long Beach, Calif. "Almost nothing new is needed. And each step is proved before risking lives on the next one."
Mars One estimates that it will cost about $6 billion to land four astronauts on Mars in 2023. The nonprofit aims to launch additional crews every two years thereafter, at a cost of around $4 billion each.
Mars One plans to foot the bill primarily by staging a global reality-TV event, with cameras documenting all phases of the project from astronaut selection to the colonists' first years on the Red Planet.
These Red Planet missions will all be one-way affairs; there are no plans to bring any of the pioneers back to Earth. Still, more than 80,000 people submitted applications to Mars One in the first two weeks after the selection process opened, officials said.
http://news.yahoo.com/china-media-claim-private-mars-colony-mission-scam-211704550.html (http://news.yahoo.com/china-media-claim-private-mars-colony-mission-scam-211704550.html)
I haven't concealed that I think this is a pie-in-the-sky dream and a bit ridiculous, but no reason to think it a scam just because it's kinda pathetic...
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I might wager the high-and-mighty Chinese Communist Party doesn't like freewheelers applyin' for Mars. :P
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Applicants for One-Way Mars Trip to Descend on Washington
SPACE.com
By Tanya Lewis, Staff Writer 18 hours ago
A coterie of aspiring Martians will descend on Washington, D.C. on Saturday (Aug. 3) for the first Million Martian Meeting.
The group consists of applicants for the Mars One mission, a one-way trip to establish a colony on Mars. The meeting will feature talks by Mars Society president and founder Robert Zubrin, Mars One CEO and co-founder Bas Lansdorp, and five Mars One applicants.
Lansdorp announced plans for the Mars One mission in May 2012. The nonprofit Mars One Foundation, based in The Netherlands, plans to land humans on Mars in 2023. Teams of four people will be launched to the Red Planet every two years, and anyone over the age of 18 is eligible to apply.
As of May 7, about 78,000 people had applied for the one-way trip.
The applicants' Facebook group, the Aspiring Martians Group, is organizing Saturday's meeting. After an opening address, Zubrin will address the group via Skype, followed by a guest speaker. Then there will be a screening of the film "One Way Astronaut," an independent documentary about Mars One applicants. Later, five applicants will make presentations, and Lansdorp will give a talk to conclude the event.
Mars One plans to launch and land an unmanned supply mission to the Red Planet in 2016, carrying 5,00 pounds of food and other equipment. An exploration rover is slated to follow in 2018 to scout out the best spot for a human colony. In 2021, the organization plans to install a Mars base consisting of two living units, two life-support units, a second supply unit and two rovers. The first crew of four is slated to launch in September 2022, and scheduled to set foot on Mars in 2023.
Mars One estimates the cost of landing the first four settlers will be about $6 billion. It plans to fund most of this by selling advertising for a reality TV program that would document the mission's progress, from astronaut selection through the settlers' first few years on Mars.
http://news.yahoo.com/applicants-one-way-mars-trip-descend-washington-221923496.html (http://news.yahoo.com/applicants-one-way-mars-trip-descend-washington-221923496.html)
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Wondering which one of those five applicants won't make it on the first four men crew...
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I wonder if any of them will make it to Mars at all.
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Hate to say so, but you're likely right. :(
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Typo: I wrote "wonder" when I meant "seriously doubt".
Hope I'm wrong.
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I might wager the high-and-mighty Chinese Communist Party doesn't like freewheelers applyin' for Mars. :P
pfft.. the Chinese are nationalist plutocrats themselves, like they are to judge Capitalists: They are the biggest Capitalists on this planet.
Though we do need some proper Socialism in space methinks... MARS MUST BE RED!
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Though we do need some proper Socialism in space methinks... MARS MUST BE RED!
I'm shocked, SHOCKED, I say, to hear such a thing from you.
;)
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:danc:
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In my language, "redden" means "to save".
RED MARS!
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Space Cadets line up for one-way Mars trip
Relaxnews
19 hours ago
(http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/CnWjrdu6W3jhAt_ixHSIAQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTQyMTtweG9mZj01MDtweW9mZj0wO3E9ODU7dz03NDk-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_US/News/US-AFPRelax/000_was7476502.6bb30084039.original.jpg)
Mars One CEO Bas Lansdorp
More than 200,000 people from 140 countries have applied to go to Mars and never return, the group behind an ambitious venture to colonize the inhospitable red planet said Monday.
Bas Lansdorp, a Dutch engineer and entrepreneur, plans to establish a permanent base on Mars in a mission he hopes will take off in 2022 if he can find the necessary $6 billion.
One in four of the 202,586 applicants for the one-way trip are Americans, said Mars One, the non-profit group which initiated its hunt for "would-be Mars settlers" in April.
There are also hopefuls from India (10 percent), China (six percent) and Brazil (five percent), among other countries, it said.
By 2015, Mars One expects put up to 10 four-member teams through intensive training, with the first of those teams reaching to Mars in 2023 on a high-risk journey that would take seven months to complete.
If they survive the trip, the human Martians will have to deal with minus 55 degrees C (minus 67 F) temperatures in a desert-like atmosphere that consists mainly of carbon dioxide.
They'll also have to consent to being observed back on Earth full-time as stars of a reality TV show that would help cover expenses.
The project has the support of Gerard 't Hooft, the Dutch joint winner of the Nobel prize for physics in 1999.
"The long term aim is to have a lasting colony," said 't Hooft in New York in April. "This expansion will not be easy. How soon that will be accomplished is anyone's guess."
Space agencies including NASA have expressed skepticism about the viability of Lansdorp's plan, saying the technology to establish a human colony on Mars does not exist.
Mars One says on its website that the mission is a decade-long endeavor, with funding intended to come from the global audience of an interactive, televised broadcast of every aspect of the mission.
So far, there have only been unmanned missions to Mars undertaken by NASA, which has signaled its intent to send astronauts there within 20 years.
http://news.yahoo.com/space-cadets-line-one-way-mars-trip-093006408.html (http://news.yahoo.com/space-cadets-line-one-way-mars-trip-093006408.html)
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RED MARS!
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One-Way Mars Colony Project Draws 200,000 Volunteers
SPACE.com
by Megan Gannon, News Editor 5 hours ago
(http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/Ey58lucadiQlBh1w8tRHXA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTMyMztweW9mZj0wO3E9ODU7dz01NzU-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_US/News/SPACE.com/One-Way_Mars_Colony_Project_Draws-a55cc1a53304f7003cad4d0b6cdd09f5)
Artist's concept of Mars One astronauts on the Red Planet.
A group that's looking for the first Red Planet colonists received applications from more than 200,000 prospective astronauts vying for a spot on a one-way trip to Mars.
The non-profit Mars One Foundation hopes to send teams of four spaceflyers on one-way Mars colony missions starting in 2023. Its initial 19-week application window closed on Aug. 31, with a final tally of 202,586 volunteers.
The only requirement to apply was to be over age 18. Those selected to move on to the next round will be notified by the end of this year. Over the next two years, a selection committee will narrow down that pool to up to 40 candidates, who will then begin seven years of astronaut training. A public vote will determine which four will be the first to go to Mars, never to return.
The applicant pool is quite diverse with more than 140 countries represented, Mars One said in a statement. Nearly a quarter of the aspiring Mars colonists are from the United States. Ten percent of the applicants are Indians, the second largest group in the pool.
Mars One, based in the Netherlands, will face some major technical and funding challenges in the years ahead. It has not yet picked a spacecraft or rocket for the long voyage. The project also estimated it will cost about $6 billion to send its first crew to the Red Planet and $4 billion for each of the following missions.
The group started raising money through its application fees, which ranged from $5 to $75 depending on the applicant's country of origin. Mars One also hopes it will be able to raise funds with a reality TV show tracking the astronaut selection process and training.
Martian hopefuls who missed the deadline or were too young to apply this time around will have future chances to be considered. Mars One says it will start regular recruitment programs as the search for future Red Planet crews continues.
http://news.yahoo.com/one-way-mars-colony-project-draws-200-000-160956314.html (http://news.yahoo.com/one-way-mars-colony-project-draws-200-000-160956314.html)
They need to work up new concept art - that pic up there was old a year ago.
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They need to work up new concept art - that pic up there was old a year ago.
Artists cost money, and it's a Dutch-based foundation.
Unless you volunteer to work for free? ;cute
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Yet somehow Artist work for free on this site? Just tell them they are going to Centauri ;lol
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Yet somehow Artist work for free on this site? Just tell them they are going to Centauri ;lol
Thing is, if any artist here works for fees on SMACX-related stuff, he might face a court real soon. ;cute
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Live from Mars: Private Red Planet Mission to Beam Video to Earth in 2018
SPACE.com
By Tanya Lewis, Staff Writer December 19, 2013 2:39 PM
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An artist's depiction of the private Mars One lander for a unmanned mission to Mars slated to launch in 2018
WASHINGTON — The Mars One colonization project plans to bring live video of the surface of Mars to Earth via a privately built communications satellite and lander to launch as part of an unmanned mission to the Red Planet in 2018.
"When we land on Mars, we will have the most unique video footage in the solar system," Mars One co-founder and CEO Bas Lansdorp said in a news conference on Dec. 10. "Anyone with Internet access will be able to see what the weather's like on Mars."
Lansdorp said public engagement is a driving force for Mars One, which aims to land humans on the Red Planet by 2025. The Netherlands-based nonprofit has said it plans to finance the settlement mission in part through a reality TV show, for which a live video feed will be crucial.
For its unmanned mission in 2018, Mars One has partnered with Surrey Satellite Technology, Ltd. (SSTL) to develop a concept for the communications satellite, which will be in Mars-synchronous orbit and provide a high-bandwidth link to relay data and live video from the planet's surface.
"Surrey has specialized over the last three decades on changing the economics of space," SSTL executive chairman Sir Martin Sweeting said at the conference. He added, "the commercialization of space exploration is vital in order to bring down costs and schedules and fuel progress."
SSTL has been a pioneer in the small-satellite industry, beginning in the 1970s with its use of commercial off-the-shelf components. The British company, which is owned by the Astrium group, made the first European Galileo lunar satellite, and the Mars One orbiter will be based on technology that started with that system, Sweeting said.
The high radiation levels that will be experienced during the journey to Mars pose a challenge, but SSTL gained experience working in such environments during the development of its moon-studying spacecraft. Sweeting said that in some ways, the Mars orbiter will be easier to operate than lunar orbiters, because the satellite maneuvers for Mars will be a bit simpler.
Mars One has contracted with security and aerospace company Lockheed Martin to develop a mission concept for the lander, which will be based on the design of NASA's Phoenix lander, which found evidence of water ice on Mars. The Mars One lander will be equipped with a digging arm and several demonstration experiments, including a water-extraction experiment, officials said.
Lansdorp and officials at SSTL and Lockheed Martin expressed excitement for the first private mission to Mars.
"You can't go to Mars on excitement," Lansdorp said. "But we are more confident than ever that we can make the first unmanned mission a reality. This is probably the most important and most difficult step of getting humans to Mars."
http://news.yahoo.com/live-mars-private-red-planet-mission-beam-video-193936960.html (http://news.yahoo.com/live-mars-private-red-planet-mission-beam-video-193936960.html)
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Private Mars Lander Launching in 2018 Will Build on NASA Legacy
SPACE.com
By Tanya Lewis, Staff Writer 4 hours ago
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An artist's depiction of the private Mars One lander for a unmanned mission to Mars
WASHINGTON — Mars One is gearing up to send an unmanned lander to the Red Planet that would follow in the mold of NASA's successful Mars landers.
The Netherlands-based nonprofit has sealed a deal with security and aerospace company Lockheed Martin to develop a mission concept for its lander. This surface craft is slated to launch toward the Red Planet along with a communications satellite in 2018 — six years before Mars One aims to blast four people toward the Red Planet on a one-way colonization mission.
Based on NASA's Phoenix lander, Mars One's lander will include new thin-film solar cells, a water extraction experiment, and other demonstration technologies that will be required for human settlement on Mars.
"Phoenix is a proven delivery system," Ed Sedivy, a civil space chief engineer at Lockheed Martin who was the program manager for NASA's Phoenix lander flight system, said in a news briefing Dec. 10. "There are very few impediments to continuing on beyond the study concept."
The objectives of the Phoenix mission, which lasted from May to November 2008, were to study the history of water in all its phases on Mars and to search for evidence of habitability. The lander had a robotic arm to dig through the top layer of soil on Mars to get to the water ice below, and it found evidence of water vapor in soil samples it heated up in an onboard oven.
The planned Mars One lander will be very similar to Phoenix, Sedivy told SPACE.com. It will have a robotic digging arm for excavating the soil, as well as an experiment to extract water, the design of which has not yet been finalized.
For power, the lander will sport two circular solar panel arrays, like Phoenix, as well as an experimental thin-film solar panel — the long "tongue" shown in the artist's impression above. Mars One co-founder and CEO Bas Lansdorp said the organization will open a call for proposals for the new solar panel, whose size will depend on the tradeoffs of payload weight and power-generating ability.
"The solar panels will be very important for a manned mission, because we don’t want to depend on nuclear power," Lansdorp said.
The lander will also have a camera, which will relay video from the surface of Mars to Earth via a satellite orbiter expected to launch with the lander in 2018. To help fund its manned missions, the first of which is slated to launch in 2024, Mars One has said it plans to organize a global media event around the colonists and their journey to (and stay on) the Red Planet.
Lockheed Martin is also developing a Phoenix lander derivative for NASA's proposed InSight mission. InSight, which is slated to launch in 2016, will place a lander on Mars to drill down to investigate the planet's deep interior, in an attempt to understand the rocky planet's evolution.
http://news.yahoo.com/private-mars-lander-launching-2018-build-nasa-legacy-123702461.html (http://news.yahoo.com/private-mars-lander-launching-2018-build-nasa-legacy-123702461.html)
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Heh. Lot's of unmanned equipment is written about in these articles. ;)
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Over a thousand candidates shortlisted for life on Mars
Reuters
4 hours ago
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Jacqueline Storey, a press officer at the National Maritime Museum, poses for a photograph in front of images of Mars
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A mission to put humans on Mars that drew 200,000 applicants has selected more than a thousand candidates who will now be tested to come up with a final list of 24 would-be Mars-dwellers.
Mars One was set up in 2011 by two Dutch men with the goal of establishing permanent human life on Mars in 2025. They hope the project will be funded by investors and the rights from the documentary-cum-reality TV broadcasting of the tests, training and final selection.
The 1,058 candidates who got through to the first round come from all over the world. By far the largest number - 297 - are American, followed by 75 Canadians and 62 Indians.
They must now undergo rigorous tests, including simulations of life on Mars and coping with isolation, co-founder Bas Lansdorp said.
"The challenge with 200,000 applicants is separating those who we feel are physically and mentally adept to become human ambassadors on Mars from those who are obviously taking the mission much less seriously," Lansdorp said.
http://news.yahoo.com/mission-shortlists-over-thousand-candidates-life-mars-163024347--sector.html (http://news.yahoo.com/mission-shortlists-over-thousand-candidates-life-mars-163024347--sector.html)
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One-way trip to Mars? Sign me up, says Frenchwoman
AFP
By Laurent Banguet 11 hours ago
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French candidate of the Mars One settlement project, Florence Porcel, pictured on January 7, 2014 in the Paris suburb of Boulogne Billancourt
Paris (AFP) - A comfortable, middle-class Parisian life may be the envy of many people, but Florence Porcel would give it all up to be among the first Earthlings to settle on Mars -- even with no option of return.
"I have always felt a bit cramped on Earth," the self-confessed space junkie told AFP, delighted to be shortlisted with some 1,000 other aspiring voyagers for Mars One -- a private project to colonise the Red Planet from 2024.
"I have always dreamt of exploring other worlds," the 30-year-old journalist said.
"I am not a pilot, nor a doctor, nor an engineer; I was never going to become an astronaut through the normal channels."
Porcel is among about 200,000 people from around the world who volunteered for the extraordinary project.
It would see two dozen pioneers abandon Earth for a new start on a cold, dry, oxygen-less planet some 55 million kilometres (34 million miles or six months' travel) away.
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Mars One CEO Bas Lansdorp holds a press conference to announce the launch of astronaut selection
The high cost of the project, an estimated six billion dollars (4.4 billion euros), precludes the option of a return trip.
The trial resettlement is meant to be mainly funded by a reality-TV show about the project.
The final 24 would be sent to the Red Planet in six separate launches starting in 10 years, according to the Dutch-based non-profit group behind the endeavour.
A short-listed 1,058 candidates from 140 countries were informed on December 30 they had made the first cut after going through an online vetting process that included an extensive questionnaire.
The criteria, according to Mars One, include an "indomitable spirit", "good judgement", and "a good sense of play". The interplanetary pioneers must also be disease- and drug-free and English-speaking.
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An image captured by the Mars rover "Spirit" and released by NASA on March 6, 2004 shows a view of the rocky terrain
The list will be finalised next year after further medical and psychological tests.
Many experts scoff at the project's feasibility, questioning whether the participants would survive the physical perils and demands on their sanity.
Porcel said she was under no illusions about the challenge.
"We will be trying to survive on a hostile planet: even breathing, drinking and eating won't be a given. We will need a lot of hard work, energy and expertise... also some luck!" she said, sitting on the couch in her small apartment near Paris.
A world away from the life that awaits the pioneers -- growing their own food in air-locked pods protecting them from Mars' thin, unbreathable atmosphere and sub-zero temperatures, the decor in Porcel's apartment is cosy and girly -- a cherry-red carpet and heart-shaped mirror adorn the lounge.
But her life's passion is evident from the heavy sprinkling of space paraphernalia in-between -- a hanging mobile of the Solar System, photos of the journalist floating in a zero gravity experimental flight, and a large collection of books on astrophysics.
Why Mars?
"I would really love to help find answers to some of Mankind's existential questions: 'Who are we?', 'Why are we alive?', 'Why are we on Earth?' and 'How was the Solar System born?'," she said.
"I am part of a generation that hasn't seen a human set foot on a celestial body other than Earth," since the end of the Moon missions in 1972.
"If Mars One gives me the chance, I will do it! It will be a first for mankind!" Porcel said, adding she had no plans to settle down or have children.
Mars One counts a Dutch 1999 Nobel Physics winner, Gerard 't Hooft, among its supporters. But there are sceptics, too.
"For now, I am ready to see this through. If I make it to the final 24 and find myself on the launch pad... perhaps it will be different... " said Porcel.
"I reserve the right to change my mind."
http://news.yahoo.com/one-way-trip-mars-sign-says-frenchwoman-164340778.html (http://news.yahoo.com/one-way-trip-mars-sign-says-frenchwoman-164340778.html)
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Private Martian Colony Project to Use New 'People's Map of Mars'
SPACE.com
By Mike Wall 7 hours ago
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A look at some of the Mars crater names submitted by the for Uwingu's "people's map" of the Red Planet.
The first people to set foot on Mars may navigate around the Red Planet using a map drawn up with the help of the masses here on Earth.
The Netherlands-based nonprofit Mars One, which aims to land four astronauts on the Red Planet in a one-way mission in 2025, has signed a deal to use a new "people's map of Mars" being developed by the space-funding company Uwingu, officials with both organizations announced today (March 3).
Most of the landforms on Uwingu's map will bear names chosen by the general public, for a small fee. Uwingu announced last week that it's seeking monikers for the 500,000 unnamed craters currently cataloged on Mars, and officials say they hope to solicit appellations for other Red Planet features, such as mountains and canyons, in the future. [Photos: How Mars One Will Colonize the Red Planet]
"We're very enthusiastic about the partnership with Uwingu," Mars One CEO and co-founder Bas Lansdorp said in a statement. "Like Mars One, Uwingu gives everyone around the world the opportunity to participate in space exploration. The name you choose will go down in history, traveling on board our 2018 mission lander and will be used by our future astronauts. What an amazing opportunity!"
Mars One's planned 2018 mission aims to launch a robotic lander and orbiter toward the Red Planet to demonstrate some of the technologies required for human missions. Further unmanned efforts will blast off in 2020 and 2022 to help prepare for the arrival of people, who are slated to touch down in 2025 as the vanguard of a permanent Mars colony.
Mars One plans to pay for most of these activities by staging a global media event around the enitre colonization project, from astronaut selection to the pioneers' life on Mars.
The chief purpose of Uwingu, whose name means "sky" in Swahili, is to raise funds for space exploration, research and education. The Mars crater-naming project could generate more than $10 million if people snap up all 500,000 craters, officials said. (Prices start at $5 for the smallest craters and go up as crater size increases).
In exchange for carrying Uwingu's map to Mars on all of its missions, Mars One will receive a portion of the funds generated by the naming project, officials said.
"I'm very excited about this," said Uwingu founder and CEO Alan Stern, a former NASA science chief who also leads the space agency's New Horizons mission to Pluto.
"Our map's actually going to get used on Mars," Stern told Space.com. "Anyone who contributes to it will know that their name — the name that they put down — is going to Mars."
To learn more about the crater-naming project, visit www.uwingu.com (http://www.uwingu.com).
http://news.yahoo.com/private-martian-colony-project-peoples-map-mars-164900527.html (http://news.yahoo.com/private-martian-colony-project-peoples-map-mars-164900527.html)
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Heh, I bet they mean the map is going to Mars in digital form. ;lol
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And they're taking Sarah's large hole with them. ;nod
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I am imagining way too many innuendo's involving digging and inserting equipment jokes with these names ;lol ;lol
Edit: And probing ;lol ;lol ;lol ;lol
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Meet the Volunteers Willing to Go to Mars and Never Come Back
Trending Now
7 hours ago
Over 200,000 people have applied to take a one-way trip to Mars. A new digital short interviews five of those prospective Mars astronauts to find out who they are and why they would want to become a part of history.
"Mars One Way" documents the thought process of Cody Reeder, Casey Hunter, Will Robbins, Katelyn Kane, and Ken Sullivan. The five applicants all come from different backgrounds but have one similarity: they are more curious about life on Mars than attached to their current living situation on Earth.
"How do you react when your husband says, 'Guess what? It's one way. I'm not coming back'?" asks Becky Sullivan. If chosen, her husband, Ken, would leave the family, including their two kids, behind. "I'm kind of in the 'It's not real' phase right now."
"There's a lot more drama in our relationship lately, about the reality of, are you choosing family or are you choosing Mars?" adds Ken. "My little boy Connor, if he just came up to me and said, 'Dad, don't go,' that would probably change my mind."
The whole situation sounds as if it were lifted from a movie at best or an elaborate prank at worst. But it's all real life. Of the other volunteers profiled, a couple said they could change their mind. Hunter could be swayed away from the trip if he proposed to his girlfriend. Reeder said his girlfriend's telling him not to go might make him think otherwise.
That said, Hunter compares his life to that of a "turd in the toilet bowl of life. I just kind of float." And before mentioning his girlfriend, the professional beekeeper Reeder says he would miss his bees the most. They might be all in after all.
Mars One is a nonprofit organization created by Bas Lansdorp and Arno Wielders. Their goal is to establish a permanent human settlement on Mars. According to the project's website, astronaut training will begin next year. The first group of volunteers is set to depart in 2024.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/meet-the-volunteers-willing-to-go-to-mars-and-never-come-back-191710586.html?vp=1 (http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/meet-the-volunteers-willing-to-go-to-mars-and-never-come-back-191710586.html?vp=1)
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One-Way Mars Colony Project to Simulate Red Planet on Earth
SPACE.com
by Megan Gannon, News Editor 21 hours ago
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All components of Mars One's settlement are slated to reach their destination by 2021. The hardware includes two living units, two life-support units, a second supply unit and two rovers.
A audacious project to send volunteers on a one-way colony trip to Mars is drawing up plans for simulation outposts on Earth to give potential Red Planet settlers a taste of Martian life.
Mars One announced their plans for mock Martian colonies Thursday (March 27), though the nonprofit hasn't picked a location for the first simulator yet.
"We are very eager to get started constructing actual hardware for our mission that is important for training future Mars One crews and preparing them for their life on Mars," Bas Lansdorp, co-founder of Mars One, said in a statement. "We are going from theory to practice."
Lansdorp hopes to put astronaut bootprints on the Red Planet by 2025. But the first Mars One colonists won't be coming back to Earth. Instead they'll live out their days in a thick-walled habitat, protected against harmful solar particles and cosmic rays, donning spacesuits to go outside in a place that lacks a breathable atmosphere. The mock habitats would attempt to recreate those isolated conditions, though at first, they won't contain actual life support systems that humans would need to survive on Mars.
Mars One also announced Thursday that it chose NASA contractor and capsule designer Kristian von Bengtson to lead the outpost project from Denmark.
Mars One's earthbound "colonies" would hardly mark the first simulated Mars missions. The Mars Desert Research Station was established in Utah a decade ago to serve as an analog to the Red Planet during mock missions. An international crew of six lived in isolation for nearly a year and a half in a pretend spaceship in Moscow for the Mars500 project, which was carried out by the European Space Agency and Russia's Institute of Biomedical Problems.
More than 200,000 people sent in applications for a spot on a Mars One voyage. Out of that huge pool, 1,058 aspiring spaceflyers were selected to move on to the next round in December 2013. Eventually, just six groups of four will be chosen to become full-time employees of the Mars One astronaut corps. Company officials have said they hope to broadcast parts of their selection process on a reality television show.
Mars One contends that it's possible to establish a settlement on Mars with existing technologies, such as modified Dragon capsules built by the private company SpaceX. The company hopes to first launch an unmanned demonstration and satellite mission in 2018 before beginning manned flights in 2025. The group recently raised more than $300,000 in a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to help get that robotic mission off the ground.
http://news.yahoo.com/one-way-mars-colony-project-simulate-red-planet-220852528.html (http://news.yahoo.com/one-way-mars-colony-project-simulate-red-planet-220852528.html)
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Private Mars One Colony Project Signs Deal with TV Production Company
SPACE.com
by Mike Wall, Senior Writer 1 hour ago
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All components of Mars One's settlement are slated to reach their destination by 2021. The hardware includes two living units, two life-support units, a second supply unit and two rovers.
The next big reality-TV star may be an aspiring Mars colonist.
The Netherlands-based nonprofit Mars One, which aims to land four settlers on the Red Planet in 2025, announced today (June 2) that it has signed a deal with Darlow Smithson Productions (DSP), an Endemol-owned company, to film its astronaut selection and training process.
"Our team felt all along that we needed a partner whose strength lies in factual storytelling to an international audience," Mars One co-founder and CEO Bas Lansdorp said in a statement. "DSP will provide that to Mars One, while allowing our selection committee to maintain control of the applicant selection process. This really is a perfect fit for both of us."
DSP's production will be seen around the world, with the first installments likely appearing in early 2015, Mars One representatives said. More details about the coverage plan will be revealed soon, they added.
Mars One hopes the 2025 landing establishes a permanent and growing Red Planet colony, with more settlers arriving every two years thereafter. The organization plans to pay its bills primarily by staging a global media event around the settlement effort, from astronaut selection to the colonists' time on Mars.
"It is a great privilege for DSP to be chosen to exclusively follow the incredible journeys of those who will make humankind's first footprint on Mars," Iain Riddick, DSP's head of special projects and digital media, said in a statement. "This has to be the world's toughest job interview for what is without question a world-first opportunity, and the human stories that emerge will captivate and inspire generations across the globe."
There will be some spaceflight action before the first launch of humans toward Mars. Mars One plans to mount several unmanned missions in the next 10 years to demonstrate required technologies and prepare the ground for the arrival of people. A robotic lander and orbiter are scheduled to lift off in 2018, for example, followed by a scouting rover in 2020 and six cargo missions in 2022.
More than 200,000 people applied to become Mars One astronauts. That pool has been slashed to 705 candidates, who are now being evaluated by a panel of experts during a series of interviews.
The applicants signed on to live out the rest of their lives on Mars; at the moment, there are no plans to bring any of the Red Planet pioneers back to Earth.
DSP has produced many documentaries and TV programs over the years, including "Earth from Space" for NOVA and Discovery Canada and "Neil Armstrong: First Man on the Moon" for BBC Two.
http://news.yahoo.com/private-mars-one-colony-project-signs-deal-tv-235239086.html (http://news.yahoo.com/private-mars-one-colony-project-signs-deal-tv-235239086.html)
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Hey, I'll watch - but I still don't see reality shows paying the bills.
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Endemol’s DSP to Film Mission to Send Man to Mars
Variety
By Leo Barraclough 16 hours ago
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LONDON — Endemol-owned docu production house Darlow Smithson Prods. has inked an exclusive pact with Mars One, an org that aims to set up a human settlement on the Red Planet. DSP will film the mission to send the first astronauts to Mars — on a one-way ticket.
DSP will follow the selection and training of the 705 candidates hoping to become the first astronauts on Mars, who have been chosen from more than 200,000 applicants. From those candidates, the four crew members of the first mission will be selected.
In order to qualify for the mission, each individual must show that they have acquired the knowledge and skills as well as the high levels of psychological and physical performance needed to make the 300 million mile, one-way trip, and to establish the settlement.
Mars One claims that human settlement on Mars is possible with existing technologies. However, no return trip can be made. Instead Mars One will send additional crews every two years to further build the colony.
The first instalments of DSP’s production are expected to begin broadcasting early next year. Further details are due to follow soon.
Bas Lansdorp, co-founder and CEO of Mars One, said: “Bringing the story of our incredibly brave aspiring Martians to the world now officially begins with what we feel is a perfect partnership. Our team felt all along that we needed a partner whose strength lies in factual storytelling to an international audience. DSP will provide that to Mars One, while allowing our selection committee to maintain control of the applicant selection process.”
Work on Mars One’s first unmanned mission to the planet is scheduled for launch in 2018, and it plans to land the first crew on Mars by 2025. The search for astronauts began in April 2013.
http://news.yahoo.com/endemol-dsp-film-mission-send-man-mars-100745494.html (http://news.yahoo.com/endemol-dsp-film-mission-send-man-mars-100745494.html)
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Mars One Wants to Send Your Experiments to the Red Planet
SPACE.com
By Tanya Lewis, Staff Writer 10 hours ago
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The non-profit Mars One organization wants to send a lander to the Red Planet in 2018. The lander will have seven different science payloads, and people everywhere can submit their ideas to the organization now.
The nonprofit organization that has raised eyebrows with its plans to send people on a one-way mission to Mars is now accepting proposals for scientific payloads that could fly aboard an unmanned mission to the Red Planet in 2018.
The Netherlands-based Mars One foundation aims to send a total of seven payloads: four demonstration payloads, one payload selected in a worldwide university competition and two payloads for sale to the highest bidder.
The unmanned 2018 mission will serve as preparation for a planned human mission to Mars in 2024, Mars One organizers said. As of May, the nonprofit had whittled down its pool of potential astronauts to 705 candidates. Mars One aims to send four people on a one-way trip to the Red Planet every two years, starting in 2024.
Mars One is asking for input from the scientific community in order to source the best ideas from around the world, Arno Wielders, co-founder and chief technical officer of Mars One, said in a statement.
"The ideas that are adopted will not only be used on the lander in 2018, but will quite possibly provide the foundation for the first human colony on Mars," Wielders said.
Mars One is expected to send these payloads aboard the lander that is scheduled to launch in August 2018 and will be built on the same platform used for NASA's 2007 Phoenix mission. Mars One and Lockheed Martin are partnering to develop a mission concept for the lander.
The four demonstration payloads will test technologies needed for the permanent human settlement of Mars. These will include an experiment to collect Martian soil for water production, an experiment to extract water from the soil, a thin-film solar panel for energy generation and a camera system that will interface with a Mars-synchronous communications satellite that will relay live video to Earth, according to Mars One.
Mars One invites university teams from around the world to submit a proposal for a competition for the university payload. These proposals can be science experiments, technology demonstrations or "any other exciting idea," Mars One representatives said. Mars One applicants and followers will help vote to select the winning payload.
"The brightest young minds of our planet are being invited to participate in Mars One's first Mars lander," Bas Lansdorp, co-founder and CEO of Mars One, said in a statement. "We're not only looking for scientific proposals but also for outreach or educational ones."
In addition to the demonstration payloads and the university payload, Mars One plans to fly two payloads purchased by the highest bidder. These could be science or technology experiments, marketing and publicity campaigns or anything else, the organizers said. Previous Mars missions have only sent payloads selected by NASA to the Red Planet, Lansdorp said, whereas Mars One hopes "to open up the opportunity to the entire world," he said.
The nonprofit has released a request for proposals and proposal information package, which include the schedule for selection of the payloads and information about the proposals. Mars One will work closely with Lockheed Martin and other advisers to evaluate and select the payloads that will be flown in 2018, organizers said.
http://news.yahoo.com/mars-one-wants-send-experiments-red-planet-115039740.html (http://news.yahoo.com/mars-one-wants-send-experiments-red-planet-115039740.html)
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Have Questions About Martian Colonies? New 'Mars Exchange' Has Answers
SPACE.com
by Mike Wall, Senior Writer 8 hours ago
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Artist's concept of Mars One astronauts and their habitat on the Red Planet. The nonprofit Mars One announced on Aug. 5, 2014 that it's starting a program called "Mars Exchange"
A private Mars colonization effort is about to get more interactive.
The Netherlands-based nonprofit Mars One, which aims to land four settlers on the Red Planet in 2025, has launched a new project called "Mars Exchange" to help answer questions and spur discussion about the group's ambitious plans.
"Mars Exchange will foster a worldwide dialogue and encourage thought-provoking conversations on the subject of the human permanence on Mars," Mars One co-founder and CEO Bas Lansdorp said in a statement. "Mars One advisers, NASA scientists, Mars One team members and even a Nobel Prize winner will contribute."
The first Mars Exchange offering, which was posted online today (Aug. 5), is an interview with Mars One adviser Mason Peck, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Cornell University who served as NASA's chief technologist from 2011 to 2013.
In the interview, Peck discusses whether or not a one-way Mars mission of the type envisioned by Mars One — which has no plans to bring the pioneers back to Earth — is "insane." (Peck thinks there are plenty of reasons that might inspire people to go live on Mars permanently.)
Mars One hopes to blast four astronauts toward the Red Planet in 2024 as the vanguard of a permanent colony. Four additional colonists would arrive every two years to augment the settlement.
The organization plans to launch a series of unmanned Mars missions in the coming years to prepare for the arrival of people. The first of these, which is scheduled to lift off in 2018, would demonstrate key technologies required for a human mission and place a communications satellite in Mars orbit, Mars One representatives have said.
Mars One intends to pay for its activities primarily by staging a global media event around the entire colonization process, from astronaut selection through the settlers' time on Mars. Astronaut selection is ongoing; in May, the group announced that it had winnowed its stable of candidate colonists to 705 from an initial pool of more than 200,000 applicants.
http://news.yahoo.com/questions-martian-colonies-mars-exchange-answers-103345531.html (http://news.yahoo.com/questions-martian-colonies-mars-exchange-answers-103345531.html)
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One-Way Mars Colony Project Launches Suborbital Spaceflight Raffle
SPACE.com
by Mike Wall, Senior Writer 1 hour ago
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Artist's concept of Mars One's anticipated colony on the Red Planet.
A private Mars colonization effort is asking for your help to make its bold plans a reality, and it's dangling a pretty hefty prize as an incentive — a trip to suborbital space.
The Netherlands-based nonprofit Mars One, which aims to land four astronauts on the Red Planet in 2025, announced today (Sept. 4) that it's raffling off a round-trip suborbital flight aboard XCOR Aerospace's Lynx rocket plane.
To enter the drawing, people can buy Mars One gear or make a donation to the organization. The money raised through the effort, which is called "Ticket to Rise," will help fund a mock Mars mission here on Earth in 2015 and a robotic demonstration mission to the Red Planet in 2018, Mars One representatives said.
"This campaign fits well into our strategy of building awareness and momentum for space travel," Mars One co-founder and CEO Bas Lansdorp said in a statement. "Most importantly, it gives our passionate community a free chance to win a space flight and spread the word to others about our mission to the Red Planet."
Ticket to Rise is a collaboration involving Mars One, the online tech magazine Motherboard and the Urgency Network, which organizes fundraising campaigns. To learn more about the project, visit https://www.urgencynetwork.com/marsone. (https://www.urgencynetwork.com/marsone.)
Mars One wants to set up a permanent colony on Mars. If all goes according to plan, the first four settlers who touch down in 2025 will be joined every two years by additional pioneers, gradually building up a human presence on the Red Planet. There are no plans at the moment to bring any of these people home to Earth.
Mars One plans to pay for most of its activities by staging a global media event around the colonization process, from astronaut selection to the settlers' time on Mars. The selection process has already begun; the organization has whittled its stable of astronaut candidates down to 705 from an initial pool of more than 200,000 applicants.
XCOR's one-passenger Lynx vehicle is designed to take people and scientific experiments to suborbital space and back again, much like Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo spaceliner. A ticket aboard Lynx currently sells for $95,000, while you'll have to plunk down $250,000 to ride SpaceShipTwo.
http://news.yahoo.com/one-way-mars-colony-project-launches-suborbital-spaceflight-162624856.html (http://news.yahoo.com/one-way-mars-colony-project-launches-suborbital-spaceflight-162624856.html)
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Expected Fatality Rate for That Mars Reality Show: 100 Percent
The Atlantic
By Tim Fernholz 1 hour ago
Mars One, an organization based in the Netherlands, has been recruiting amateur astronauts to send on a one-way, televised trip to Mars, with the hopes of building a colony there. The organization says that the technology to do this exists, or will be ready by the time of its expected 2022 launch date.
Not so fast, says a group of strategic engineering graduate students at MIT. A simulation of the Mars One plan shared with the public at the recent International Astronautical Congress reveals the colonization project will likely end in disaster unless expensive changes are made.
Mars One plans on sending crews of four every two years to the Red Planet, where they will live inside space capsules and inflatable habitats, wringing water from the Martian soil and growing much of their own food. The researchers took into account the various factors necessary for survival—maintaining a breathable atmosphere, avoiding starvation and dehydration, preventing fire and depressurization—to see what the colony would need.
It takes 68 days for the first crew member to die.*
That projected fatality is the result of suffocation, space-style: The researchers found that growing plants would increase the amount of oxygen in the air to the point where it would need to be vented outside of the habitat to avoid increasing the pressure within the life support unit.
(http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/fO6EULTYufYIqnuBn_d1oA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NQ--/http://globalfinance.zenfs.com/en_us/Finance/FIN_US_AHTTP_THEATLANTIC/Expected_Fatality_Rate_for_That-cde462fd701b3a3e879dd4ce4348af71)
But there isn’t technology yet to vent oxygen separately from nitrogen, and indiscriminate venting would quickly cause the colonists to run out of the nitrogen used to maintain pressure, creating a situation where there will not be enough air pressure for crew members to breathe, but enough oxygen in the habitat to create serious fire danger.
And did I mention that humidity in the capsule will hover around 100 percent, thanks to the agricultural efforts?
These failures sent the researchers back to the drawing board, considering options that would avoid this problem by bringing all of the food needed for the colonists or growing it in a completely separate habitat. Both of these options are more feasible, but require far larger shipments of supplies than Mars One’s organizers have planned.
Ironically, it’s more efficient to simply bring food to Mars than attempt to grow it, since the additional infrastructure for the plants will require far more replacement parts. Ultimately, supporting the first crew of four on Mars will require about 15 launches of a heavy rocket like SpaceX’s forthcoming Falcon Heavy, costing about $4.5 billion on their own.
Given that Mars One’s projected budget for the first crew—including launches, years of training, supplies, specially built spacecraft and habitats, ground control, communications technology, and a Martian rover—is $6 billion, they’d better start thinking up new fundraising tactics, or hope the costs of space access drop dramatically in the next eight years.
* Bas Lansdorp, CEO and co-founder of Mars One, disputes this analysis, writing to say that “lack of time for support from us combined with their limited experience results in incorrect conclusions.” Lansdorp believes that adapting medical oxygen concentrators will address atmosphere control issues and that the MIT researchers over-estimate the weight of their components, but was unable to share any other details about his Mars plan.
http://news.yahoo.com/expected-fatality-rate-mars-reality-145323641.html (http://news.yahoo.com/expected-fatality-rate-mars-reality-145323641.html)
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The reason Mars One colonists could die will surprise you
Humans could begin moving to Mars as soon as 2024 as part of an ambitious Dutch reality-TV/space-exploration project, but a few MIT students say it might not be so simple.
CNET
by Eric Mack @ericcmack /October 9, 2014 3:52 PM PDT
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Mars One hopes to make this reality in about a decade. Mars One
There's a battle of the brains under way online about just how long the first human colonists to set up a new home on Mars will last on the Red Planet. A group of MIT students have challenged the viability of Mars One, a Dutch nonprofit's plan to set up a permanent colony on Mars with hearty volunteer astronauts who get a one-way ticket to both the fourth planet from the sun and history.
While those who sign up and are selected for Mars One's mission fully understand they'll be living out the rest of their days on Mars, presumably they'll be hoping that those days will number into the thousands. However, the MIT students' analysis (PDF) by Sydney Do, Koki Ho, Samuel Schreiner, Andrew Owens and Olivier de Weck estimates that the first fatality on Mars will come at around day 68 of the mission.
"This would be a result of suffocation from too low an oxygen partial pressure within the environment," the paper reads. Titled "An Independent Assessment of the Technical Feasibility of the Mars One Mission Plan," it was presented at the 65th International Astronautical Congress in Toronto earlier this month.
The problem, according to the study, is basically that growing a bunch of crops inside the same structure as living quarters -- as the mission design calls for -- will raise the oxygen in the air to an unsafe level, requiring that extra O2 to be vented outside. However, the MIT students claim that since technology is not available that could exclusively vent oxygen while holding on to the needed levels of nitrogen to ensure enough air pressure for the crew to actually breathe, things start to get really uncomfortable after the imported nitrogen tanks run out on day 66.
Actually, things would already be uncomfortable before lack of oxygen becomes an issue, thanks to the fact that living in a greenhouse would raise humidity levels in the structure to 100 percent, according to the paper.
The MIT paper takes some liberties here, though, by using an area for crop growth that is four times larger than what is included in the actual mission plan. They rationalize this change in their modeling by making the case that because "the crop selection will significantly influence the well-being of the crew for the entirety of their lives after reaching Mars, we opt for crop variety over minimizing growth area."
Mars One CEO Bas Landorp responded to the student paper here, saying "There are many problems between today and landing humans on Mars, but oxygen removal is certainly not one of them."
Landorp explains that the technology used in oxygen concentrators commonly found in hospitals and elsewhere can remove oxygen from the atmosphere via a process called "pressure swing adsorption." He says Mars One plans to leave oxygen levels in the habitat at 20 percent, which is comparable to levels seen at high altitude in places like Quito, Ecuador, on Earth.
The MIT paper is also critical of other aspects of the mission, claiming that the number of launches required to get everything staged and set up for the colonists is overly optimistic.
The students say that they based their conclusions on the best available information and will update their findings when more information becomes available. We'll see if that happens now that the existence of oxygen concentrators is apparently on the table. I'm sure the potential future crew members would appreciate an update just as much as the rest of us.
http://www.cnet.com/news/why-mars-one-colonists-could-die-sooner-than-expected/#ftag=YHF65cbda0 (http://www.cnet.com/news/why-mars-one-colonists-could-die-sooner-than-expected/#ftag=YHF65cbda0)
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I call bull on them dying because of too much oxygen. That assumes their biosphere works optimally.
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Humans may only survive 68 days on Mars
AFP
By Fabienne Faur 59 minutes ago
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A general view of Mars, captured by Mastcam:Left onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on January 27, 2013 (AFP Photo/)
Washington (AFP) - Space enthusiasts planning a move to Mars may have to wait to relocate: conditions on the Red Planet are such that humans would likely begin dying within 68 days, a new study says.
Oxygen levels would start to deplete after about two months and scientists said new technologies are required before humans can permanently settle on Mars, according to the study by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
The five-person team used data from Mars One, a Dutch-based non-profit group behind an audacious project to permanently colonize the Red Planet starting in 2024.
A shortlist of more than 1,000 people from an initial pool of 200,000 applicants will be whittled down to 24 for the mission -- an irreversible move to Mars, which is to be partially funded by a reality television show about the Endeavor.
But conditions on Mars -- and the limits of human technology -- could make the mission impossible, for now at least.
"The first crew fatality would occur approximately 68 days into the mission," according to the 35-page report, which analyzed mathematical formulas on oxygen, food and technology required for the project.
Plants required to feed the space colony would produce "unsafe" amounts of oxygen, the authors said.
"Some form of oxygen removal system is required, a technology that has not yet been developed for space flight," the study concluded.
Shipping in replacement parts is an additional challenge and will likely boost the cost of the mission, which the researchers estimated to be at least $4.5 billion.
Mars One co-founder and CEO Bas Lansdorp agreed that sending spare parts to Mars could pose a problem.
"The major challenge of Mars One is keeping everything up and running," he told Popular Science magazine.
But he claimed the researchers used incomplete data, adding that technology for Mars colonization was nearly ready.
"While oxygen removal has never been done in space, I disagree that the technology is not mostly ready to go to Mars," Lansdorp told AFP.
"Of course, the actual apparatus that we will take to Mars still needs to be designed and tested extensively, but the technology is already there."
Many people have voiced doubts about the mission, though the project has won support from Gerard 't Hooft, the Dutch 1999 Nobel Physics prize winner.
The Red Planet lies at least 55 million kilometers (34 million miles) from Earth and it would take a minimum of seven months to get there.
Last June, the entertainment company Endemol, a major reality television producer, agreed to film the participants as they prepared for the move to Mars.
http://news.yahoo.com/humans-may-only-survive-68-days-mars-220955518.html (http://news.yahoo.com/humans-may-only-survive-68-days-mars-220955518.html)
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Endemol... quite a familiar name in the lowlands media industry.
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MIT Researchers Destroyed This Plan To Send Humans To Mars
Business Insider
By Dina Spector October 15, 2014 11:20 AM
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Mars One An artist's rendering of a Mars Lander, which will transport the first settlers to the Martian surface.
A highly publicized plan to send the first humans to Mars within the next decade is riddled with problems and probably will not get off the ground anytime soon, according to a new report from researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The Mars One program, developed by the Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp, strives to put a four-person crew on Mars by 2025 using "existing and available technology." The group at MIT, on the hand, has identified many technological advances that will need to be met to make the one-way trip a reality and enable a crew to survive on Mars for a reasonable amount of time.
"While this program has been received with great fanfare, very little has been published in the technical literature on this mission architecture," the report said.
The team used mathematical models to evaluate the feasibility of the trip if living units with systems that produce water, oxygen, and nitrogen were deployed to the Martian surface ahead of time, as the Mars One plan suggests.
Using those variables, many simulations found that the trip would be a failure. For example, if the crew requires more food than what would be available in the food store, then the crew would die of starvation before it could grow new food on the surface of Mars.
(http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/V698kPQzdzUOOE9HpRLXrg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NQ--/http://globalfinance.zenfs.com/en_us/Finance/US_AFTP_SILICONALLEY_H_LIVE/MIT_Researchers_Destroyed_This_Plan-8199c0ddd8874cb4cd46f756f954837e)
MIT
The image to the right shows the layout of the habitat unit and the location of different technologies used for one simulation as part of the MIT analysis.
The researchers pointed out countless challenges in their 35-page report. Notably, food that comes from crops grown on the Martian surface would produce "unsafe oxygen levels" and would require a yet-to-be-developed oxygen removal system, the authors write.
Unofficial sources have also said that the Mars One habitat will be based on a modified version of SpaceX's Dragon module, although the private transport company has not made any mention of this plan.
The researchers found that sending up initial supplies for the first Mars crew would require 15 Falcon Heavy rockets, compared to Mars One's modest estimate of just six.
“We’re not saying, black and white, Mars One is infeasible,” MIT professor Oliver de Weck said. “But we do think it’s not really feasible under the assumptions they’ve made. We’re pointing to technologies that could be helpful to invest in with high priority, to move them along the feasibility path.”
http://news.yahoo.com/mit-researchers-absolutely-destroyed-plan-152004567.html (http://news.yahoo.com/mit-researchers-absolutely-destroyed-plan-152004567.html)
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Forget surviving on the surface, my money is on that it will not even make it off the ground.
Though they may make a bit of change locking drama llamas up in some sort of experiment/training and showing people this on TV. It still will not be enough to land the kind of infrastructure they show on those pretty pictures. Consider for a second Mars Science Laboratory. That thing is the size of a golf cart. MSL had to use groundbreaking techniques like sky cranes. While it does use nuclear fuel which drives up the cost, even that project had over runs and cost 650+ M. All those pods, life support, etc could go into Billions, not Millions. No TV show in history except maybe multiple American Football Superbowls produce that kind of cash.
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Maybe if they launch from the Indian spaceport... :dunno:
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That's been my objection from the beginning - no way is a reality show going to make the many billions it'll take. So how are they going to pay?
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Astronaut Chris Hadfield Explains The Big Problem With The Mars One Mission
http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=13997.msg63328#msg63328 (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=13997.msg63328#msg63328)
Astronaut Chris Hadfield Explains The Big Problem With The Mars One Mission
Business Insider
By Jessica Orwig 26 minutes ago
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Kai Staats
If you haven't heard, there's a plan to start up a colony of humans living on Mars in the near future.
If the next decade goes as planned, the not-for-profit organization, Mars One, will launch a manned mission to Mars that will land the first human colony on the red planet in 2025.
Here's the catch: Those who leave Earth for the 7-month-long ride in space will never return.
The four-member crew will learn to call Mars — a freezing, barren, lifeless planet — home. Forever.
That may sound great to the tens of thousands of people who applied, but Mars One is going about their grandiose plans all wrong according to retired Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield.
Right now, Mars One is focused more on raising funds and selecting crew members than developing the technology needed for the trip. And the technology, Hadfield told Elmo Keep, writing in Medium, is the most basic starting point for any space mission.
"There's a great, I don't know, self-defeating optimism in the way that this project has been set up," Hadfield told Keep. "I fear that it's going to be a little disillusioning for people, because it's presented as if for sure it's going to happen."
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Flickr/Benjamin
So far, the company claims they've had more than 200,000 people apply, and are about to start interviews with 663 final candidates. Mars One says that they will gather the majority of money for the trip through crowd funding from a global reality television event.
The company anticipates that the trip to Mars will cost approximately $6 billion (that's shockingly low compared to NASA estimates for a two-way trip to Mars and back costing roughly $100 billion.)
Although Mars One has visions of partnering with companies like SpaceX to procure the proper technology, so far its only contract is with Paragon Space Development Corporation to study initial life support systems.
Hadfield isn't the only one doubting this project. Doubters at MIT have calculated that "living on Mars" will last only about 68 days before the colonists die.
In particular, Hadfield said, if you don't have the specifications of the spacecraft, you can't begin to select the people who will live and work in it.
"I want to see the technical specifications of the vehicle that is orbiting Earth," Hadfield said. "I want to know: How does a space suit on Mars work? Show me how it is pressurized, and how it is cooled. What's the glove design?"
(http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/3cGuymOuUc1092dcTYAoeA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NQ--/http://globalfinance.zenfs.com/en_us/Finance/US_AFTP_SILICONALLEY_H_LIVE/Astronaut_Chris_Hadfield_Explains_The-293921765a66fff92447875670aa886c)
This image, captured Feb. 1, 2014, shows a colorized view of Earth from the moon-based perspective of NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University
What's more, Mars should not even be a target for colonization at this point, according to Hadfield. Our sites should be set on a place much closer.
"We absolutely need to do it on the moon for a few generations," Hadfield told Keep.
On average, the moon is about 600 times closer to Earth than Mars. That means if something goes wrong with a colony, we can dispatch help from Earth that will reach the Moon in a matter of hours instead of months. Developing a working moon colony would be an important first step to living on Mars.
(http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/Pn5d1d43QEx9MFdO9F0BAg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NQ--/http://globalfinance.zenfs.com/en_us/Finance/US_AFTP_SILICONALLEY_H_LIVE/Astronaut_Chris_Hadfield_Explains_The-65139118114cb6391ad9378af6273b14)
NASA Astronaut Eugene A. Cernan of Apollo 17 tests the Lunar Roving Vehicle on the moon.
Here's a short list of what Hadfield told Keep we need to know before living on Mars:
How do you completely recycle your water?
How do you completely recycle your oxygen system?
How do you protect yourselves from radiation?
How do you not go crazy?
How do you set up the politics of the place and the command structure, so that when we get it wrong we won't all die?
While the Mars One desire to get people excited about space travel again is noble — it has been more than 42 years since we last landed a human on anything in space besides the International Space Station. There's a right way and a wrong way t o go about landing people on other satellites throughout the solar system.
"It's not a race, it's not an entertainment event. We didn't explore the world to entertain other people. We did it as a natural extension of human curiosity and matching capability," Hadfield told Keep. "And that's what will continue to drive us."
http://news.yahoo.com/astronaut-chris-hadfield-explains-big-192957560.html (http://news.yahoo.com/astronaut-chris-hadfield-explains-big-192957560.html)
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Let 'm go! ;zak;
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I don't think he's exactly volunteering.
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Private Mars Colony Project Wants Help Choosing 2018 Lander Experiments
http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=14075.msg63581#msg63581 (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=14075.msg63581#msg63581)
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Private Mars One Colony Project Cuts Applicant Pool to 100 Volunteers (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=15952.msg69442#msg69442)
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76 more to go (not to Mars), spares excluded...
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I don't think the mission will happen, or work if it does.
To address a couple of questions, I think that the only way to protect themselves from radiation long term is underground. Otherwise, shielding amounts to a lot of dead weight.
As for maintaining sanity, I think the answer is similar to that for Alaska/Yukon during the long, dark, winter. The people most likely to go crazy are those without anything to do.
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Yeah, I don't think there's many people at all who rate the chances of this working very highly...
But wouldn't it be neat if it did anyway?
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Yes. It would be neat. I'm actually hoping/expecting that they'll solve some of the problems of space colonization in the planning and preparation process. People that think they're betting their lives, or staking their hopes on this might be particularly motivated.
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I CAN easily believe that they might manage to do some useful basic research. -Not the way I'd bet, but a lot more likely than colonizing.
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They could easily, well, it wouldn't be easy, but they could very possibly test closed water and oxygen recycling systems while living in them.
Surely there's someplace they could use for experiments. Antartica? the Arctic circle? On a mountain where it's both cold, and the air is thin? Somewhere to test the people and systems while buried in soil or snow. Somewhere that they can come out of in the event of failure, or if the food supply is exhausted, etc.
What does everybody else think?
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Looks like there's one Belgian candidate left. See his profiĺe (https://community.mars-one.com/profile/78564372-39a3-4bf0-b62f-2d89d597b105).
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The Mars One plan is totally delusional
Business Insider
By Kelly Dickerson 4 hours ago
(http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/PqXKyUiXLdTuZQGlhDoCXQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NQ--/http://globalfinance.zenfs.com/en_us/Finance/US_AFTP_SILICONALLEY_H_LIVE/The_Mars_One_plan_is-623c0080cc08a2cecfd48279e7be0c45)
(NASA ) Earth and Mars shown to scale.
Despite those beautiful images of swirling red clouds and sprawling landscapes, Mars is an barren desert that is incredibly inhospitable to life.
Indeed, temperatures around minus 67 degrees Fahrenheit, a near total lack of atmosphere to protect from deadly radiation, and regular violent dust storms lead most experts to believe that a human colony on the red planet in the foreseeable future would be very difficult and extremely expensive.
And so when a company like Mars One says we can start a human colony on Mars in 10 years with a $6 billion budget, it is laughable.
"I don't want to get in their (Mars One’s) way, but I'm skeptical that it can be accomplished on the timescale that they say," Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Museum of Natural History and host of the new National Geographic show StarTalkTV, told Business Insider.
Mars One doesn’t own any of its own space travel technology and has no existing contracts with companies that do. It plans to send four people at a time to start setting up a colony, and it plans to finance these missions through a reality TV show starring the colonizers, but no broadcast partners have been announced.
“It looks like a scam,” John Logsdon, a space policy expert at George Washington University, told BuzzFeed News.
What you need to know about Mars One:
Mars One is a private nonprofit company with a planned mission to set up the first long-term human colony on Mars by 2025.
It plans to accomplish this by first sending a communication satellite and a rover to start setting up an outpost and then sending humans in groups of four to live on the planet. This would be a one-way trip, with no possibility of volunteers returning to Earth.
It's been about two years since Bas Lansdorp, cofounder and now CEO of Mars One, announced the plan to colonize the red planet. In that time, more than 200,000 people have applied. (Though the 200,000 number is under contention. Other publications have reported far less, and Lansdorp has done little to clear up the confusion). Either way, Mars One has narrowed the pool of applicants down to 100 people — "The Mars 100."
The company is planning on paying for this incredibly expensive mission using sponsors, donations, and creating a reality TV show starring the first colonizers.
Mars One's proposed timeline for setting up a colony:
2015: The top candidates start training, and Mars One will choose 24 that it will send to Mars.
2018: A demo mission will launch that will put a stationary lander on the planet and put a satellite into orbit that is capable of transmitting messages between Earth and Mars.
2020: A rover is sent to Mars to scout out the best spot for a human settlement.
2022: Supplies are shipped over, including two living units, two life support systems, and a supply unit.
2023: The rover collects all those supplies and gets the outpost set up and ready for humans.
2024: The first four Mars colonizers leave Earth. It'll take about six to eight months to get there, and they'll land in 2025.
The plan is for the settlers to live in pods that will look something like this:
(http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/M2aiAp_Acn_AGscsAohfdg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NQ--/http://globalfinance.zenfs.com/en_us/Finance/US_AFTP_SILICONALLEY_H_LIVE/The_Mars_One_plan_is-6498ed8ec1db150e15d6afe9c43a3a87)
(Mars One)
The problem? Almost none of this technology exists yet. And that's just the first hurdle. Below are all the reasons Mars One is never getting off the ground.
1. The budget is way too low.
Mars One plans on pulling this off with $6 billion.
At face value that may sound like a lot. But to put it into perspective, last year a panel from NASA said that a manned mission to Mars could probably become a reality with a budget of somewhere between $80 billion and $100 billion. NASA’s plan to use the Orion capsule to send humans to Mars in the 2030s is probably technically feasible, but NASA's budget has continually been slashed, so a NASA mission is not likely on the horizon either.
In all fairness, Mars One plans on keeping its costs down by outsourcing all the technology development. "All equipment will be developed by third-party suppliers and integrated in established facilities," the company writes on its website.
2. Even with such a low budget, Mars One probably won't be able to raise the money in time.
Mars One won't need $6 billion up front, but the company failed to meet its Indiegogo campaign goal of $400,000 last year — a campaign that was supposed to help pay for the 2018 Mars lander.
Even SpaceX, another private company interested in space travel, has only raised around $1.2 billion, according to Quartz, and it's been around a lot longer than Mars One has.
As of February 28, including the Indiegogo campaign, the total amount of donations Mars One has received is about $759,816. That’s a little over 0.01% of its $6 billion budget.
But Lansdorp remains tirelessly optimistic about the securing the money, and he says there are no plans to rethink the timeline.
"We have very good interest for our upcoming [investment] round and are not worried about our financial position," Lansdorp told Business Insider in an email.
(http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/buInmP4Dx.K3OoggRcRebA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NQ--/http://globalfinance.zenfs.com/en_us/Finance/US_AFTP_SILICONALLEY_H_LIVE/The_Mars_One_plan_is-1f76dc366dbdbcf7284e1bd9cf7f71c0)
(NASA) This is an altitude map of Mars.
The company seems to be banking on the revenue from a proposed reality TV show that would document the finalists' training, preparation, and voyage to Mars. And people will be dying to watch a group of hopefuls vying for a shot to colonize Mars and then struggle to survive in an inhospitable alien world, right?
Well, it's not a good sign that no media corporation has purchased the exclusive broadcast rights that Mars One offered on the finalists' video interviews.
(http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/WA93zKZE8kZjJbogdP4NaQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NQ--/http://globalfinance.zenfs.com/en_us/Finance/US_AFTP_SILICONALLEY_H_LIVE/The_Mars_One_plan_is-7735b8d61c2d0f8eae303cde1a69f06c)
(The Guardian) Ryan is a UK-based physics student and is one of the "Mars 100."
And those video interviews with the finalists make some of them seem wholly unprepared for what they're getting themselves into.
Still, the company sounds pretty confident that it can generate a lot of interest in the show:
"In the next decade, about four billion people will have access to video images," the company writes in its business model description. "Mars One expects that virtually every one of them will watch when the first humans land on Mars."
The company cites the Olympics as a business model which, between broadcasting, sponsors, and ticket sales, brought in around $8 billion between 2009 and 2012.
But one has to wonder how interesting a Mars colony reality TV show would be anyway. Presumably these candidates will be doing some serious training over the next decade to ensure they survive when they arrive on Mars. That probably means they'll be doing a lot of very technical and very boring work inside small living spaces. It's questionable how much entertainment value that would have — unlike sporting events that have been successfully drawing huge audiences since their conception.
3. A relentlessly optimistic (AKA unrealistic) timeline.
Even if Mars One does raise enough money to make this mission happen, landing humans on Mars within 10 years seems overly optimistic at best given the current state of rocket and human spaceflight technology.
(http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/ZQS9rnFRSqaJNW8qhmJe6A--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NQ--/http://globalfinance.zenfs.com/en_us/Finance/US_AFTP_SILICONALLEY_H_LIVE/The_Mars_One_plan_is-bf64cda8ee3104d4efa5dee51622c72d)
(NASA/JPL)
The shortlisted candidates are supposed to start training this year so the company can further narrow down the colonizers, according to Mars One's official timeline, and the finalists will continue training over the next decade up until the launch.
"We want to select six groups of four to become employees — our astronaut corps — by the end of this year," Lansdorp said.
However, Mars One has yet to announce a location for the finalists' training. But Lansdorp assures us everything is still on track.
"We're in negotiation with several locations that would like to host our training outpost," Lansdorp writes. "We hope to use the training outpost already after the summer."
Still, 10 years just doesn't sound feasible. NASA's more reasonable-sounding timeline has goals of sending humans to orbit Mars by the 2030s and sending humans to explore the surface in the 2060s. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, has said that by the end of the year he will announce his own timeline for a mission to Mars.
4. The technology to keep these people alive on Mars doesn't exist.
After reading analyses of the mission, it sounds like Mars One could find itself playing a tragic and losing game of Oregon Trail, only in this case, real human lives hang in the balance.
The settlers will be living inside a system of sealed pods, but they'll need life support devices to make sure there's enough oxygen.
According to an MIT study that analyzed the tech that Mars One plans on using, the bottom line is that the first settlers would suffocate within 68 days because the equipment would not be able to balance oxygen levels in the pods.
However, when we asked Lansdorp about the study he pointed out some problems with it:
The so-called MIT report was actually written by a few undergraduate students. They have made very incorrect assumptions about our mission, which basically resulted in a completely different mission to Mars with, honestly, a very bad design. Of course such a badly designed mission will result in all kinds of issues and higher cost. The result of our life support supplier Paragon Space Development Corporation is coming out early March. Because of the superior design of Paragon, a company that has built life support systems for decades, none of the issues mentioned in the students [report] arise.
But one of the most worrisome nuggets from the MIT analysis reads: "While there is some reference to existing technology within the Mars One mission plan, a survey of the current state of the art indicates that many of the technologies that would likely be employed on such a mission are not currently ready for deployment." The study could not directly evaluate the life support systems Mars One plans on using because they haven't even been developed yet.
Even the living-in-space tech that we already have is designed for the International Space Station which operates in zero-g. There's still gravity on Mars (it's about 40% of that on Earth), so it's likely that existing equipment would not function flawlessly on Mars.
Mars One has asked Survey Satellite Technology Ltd. to build the communication satellite it plans to launch in 2018, Lockheed Martin to build the rover that it plans to launch in 2020, and Paragon to build the life support systems for when the settlers arrive in 2025. It also plans on using SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket to launch the missions and SpaceX’s Dragon capsule to land on Mars.
But those dates aren't very far away and Mars One hasn't finalized contracts with any of these companies.
According to an interview at MIT in October, 2014, Mars One has yet to approach SpaceX about using any of the company's rockets or spacecraft.
(http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/96KiE1n4_JDe7GO3wg5vVg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NQ--/http://globalfinance.zenfs.com/en_us/Finance/US_AFTP_SILICONALLEY_H_LIVE/The_Mars_One_plan_is-11f51b3c396ac6f47b6fde7480b8720d)
(SpaceX) SpaceX technicians work on the Dragon vehicle that will undergo a crucial pad abort test in early 2015.
“The illustrations that I’ve seen basically has them (Mars One) using a bunch of SpaceX rockets and Dragon spacecraft and I’m like ‘OK if they want to buy a bunch of Dragons and Falcon land rockets that’s cool, we’ll certainly sell them,’” Musk said. “But I don’t think they’ve got anywhere near the funding to buy even one, so I think therefore it’s unrealistic.”
Musk has his own dreams of a colony on Mars, but even he admits that the Dragon capsules are “less than ideal” for sending humans to Mars. It’ll likely be a six to eight month journey. “That’s a long time to spend in something with the interior volume of an SUV,” Musk said. “So I’d recommend waiting for the next generation of technology.”
Musk said during a Reddit AMA in January that the SpaceX plan for a Mars colony will feature different transport technology.
Lansdorp said the results for Paragon's life support designs will be coming out in March. So we'll stay tuned.
5. There are too many unanswered questions on how to sustain life after we get there.
If the Mars settlement ever hoped to grow 100% of its own food instead of relying on constant and costly resupply shipments, the crops would produce unsafe levels of oxygen within the living pods. So the settlers would need an oxygen removal system — something that also hasn't been invented for spaceflight yet.
That same MIT study also estimates that at least 200 square meters of crops would be needed to support humans in space. The Mars One mission in its current state as only allocated 50 square meters.
Further, only a handful of plant experiments have ever been conducted in space, and there's still a ton we don't know about growing crops in space or in low gravity.
(http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/fN4NwlY1meVw4j2e1WxBTA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NQ--/http://globalfinance.zenfs.com/en_us/Finance/US_AFTP_SILICONALLEY_H_LIVE/The_Mars_One_plan_is-bef7e623f7359a3006a6c6140bdd3df8)
(NASA) Lettuce growing on board the International Space Station.
6. We have no idea what happens to humans who spend a really long time in space.
Even if Mars One secures all the funding it needs, even if all this technology is invented, and supply issues get sorted out, we have no idea how long-term space travel influences the human body.
This year NASA will send astronauts to the ISS who will be the first humans to live in space for a consecutive year. The trip to Mars alone will take at least seven months.
Living in zero-g can stretch out our spines, turn our muscles into jelly, and mess with our immune systems. No one knows what permanently living in an environment with less than half of Earth's gravity and with no source of vitamin D from the sun would do to us.
Bottom line: Mars One has a lot of people excited, but the odds are stacked against it.
Still, some people have argued that this mission is not just about feasibility and whether it really will happen in 10 years. It's more about the pioneering spirit of the human race and inspiring people.
"There's so much that comes out of an effort like this," one of the 100 Mars One finalists Sonia Van Meter told Jezebel. "It is expensive, but the glory behind space exploration is that it inspires people."
Even though it's unlikely that Mars One will be the company to get us to Mars, that doesn't mean we should stop trying.
During a Reddit AMA, Casey Dreier, director of advocacy for the Planetary Society, said we need to think a little smaller first.
"We talk a lot about humans on Mars, but I think we need to talk more about humans around Mars as a first step," Dreier wrote. "I don't know about you, but seeing astronauts float a few hundred kilometers off of the surface of Mars would be one of the most exciting events of my lifetime. There's still significant risk and technical issues to work out for getting people near the surface, much less on it, so I'm all for examining this option more."
http://news.yahoo.com/mars-ones-plan-colonize-red-155056558.html (http://news.yahoo.com/mars-ones-plan-colonize-red-155056558.html)
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1) Yeah, I think the budget is way too low.
2) Yeah, most likely the cash flow problems will cause the project to fizzle after the TV show does. Of course, I'd much rather watch this show than reality tv shows about something I could check out for myself if I wanted, like crab fishing. But What do I know?
I loved watching action-filled spectacular music videos in the 80s, but they got pushed aside for some dull nonsense called "Big Brother", and one of the greatest successes of reality TV was some stupid nonsense called "Survivor". Just because I think no one will watch a show doesn't mean no one will.
3) Optimistic timeline. Well, sure. But seriously, the impossible will always remain so as long as nobody tries. I think it's really all about getting the ball rolling. Time, money, technology, imagination, etc.
4) &5) The oxygen will run out in 68 days, or it will be so plentiful as to be unsafe.
That is exactly the kind of problem this kind of Earth-locked project could conceivably solve before the launch by living in capsules.
6)We have no idea about the long term effects of life in space. That's an overstatement. We know lack of gravity and excess radiation are bad for our bodies. Maybe they can use picks and shovels to bury their capsules in frozen gravel, counteracting low gravity, using surplus oxygen, and providing radiation shielding in one fell swoop. :P
I think it's more of an overly ambitious dream than a scam. Well, that and #3.
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Mars One Colony Project Delays Manned Red Planet Mission to 2026
SPACE.com
By Mike Wall 1 hour ago
(http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/gAmIAVTmp79rVz0BNmkkCQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTMyMztweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz01NzU-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_US/News/SPACE.com/Mars_One_Colony_Project_Delays-6f6b6079a6973621a83b745cfadf10fb)
Artist's concept of Mars One's planned colony on the Red Planet, which would begin with the touchdown of four people in 2027.
The private colonization project Mars One has pushed its planned launch of the first humans toward the Red Planet back by two years, to 2026.
The delay was necessitated by a lack of investment funding, which has slowed work on a robotic precursor mission that Mars One had wanted to send toward the Red Planet in 2018, Mars One CEO Bas Lansdorp said in a new video posted today (March 19).
That robotic mission aims to launch a lander and orbiter to Mars, to test out technologies needed for human settlement. Mars One, a Netherlands-based nonprofit, awarded contracts to aerospace firms Lockheed Martin and Surrey Satellite Technology to work on the lander and orbiter, respectively.
"We had a very successful investment round in 2013 that has financed all the things that we have done up to now. And we have actually come to an agreement with a consortium of investors late last year for a much bigger round of investments. Unfortunately, the paperwork of that deal is taking much longer than we expected," Lansdorp said in the video.
"I now think that it will be done before the summer of this year. That means that we will not be in time to finance the follow-up study that Lockheed Martin needs to do for our first unmanned mission in 2018, which unfortunately means that we will have to delay that mission to 2020," he added. "Delaying our first unmanned mission by two years also means that all the other missions will move by the same period of time, having our first human landing now planned for 2027."
The new video was apparently made in response to an article critical of Mars One that Matter posted earlier this week.
In the article, astrophysicist Joseph Roche, a former Mars One astronaut candidate, alleges that the organization has been picking its astronauts at least partly based on how much money they donate to the private colonization effort. Roche also says that Mars One's selection process is flawed and slipshod. Further, article author Elmo Keep alleges that Mars One received just 2,761 applications from prospective Red Planet settlers, not the 202,000 claimed by the organization.
Lansdorp disputes these assertions in the video, saying that money has nothing to do with the selection process, and that Mars One's numbers are accurate.
"We offered the reporter, the first journalist ever, access to our list of 200,000 applications but she was not interested in that," Lansdorp said. "It seems that she is more interested in writing a sensational article about Mars One than in the truth."
Lansdorp also defended the selection process, claiming that it will become more thorough from here on out, as the organization whittles the group down from 100 finalists to the 24 who will train to go to Mars. (Mars One aims to launch four-person crews to the Red Planet every two years, beginning in 2026; at the moment, there are no plans to bring any of these pioneers back to Earth.)
"We will bring our candidates together, we will put them through team and individual challenges, there will be much longer interviews and there will be a much bigger selection committee," Lansdorp said. "This is the way we will determine [which candidates] are good enough to enter our training process."
You can watch the entire Mars One video here:
Mars One CEO Bas Lansdorp answers questions about mission feasibility (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5LmxFBlm60#ws)
http://news.yahoo.com/mars-one-colony-project-delays-manned-red-planet-153657202.html (http://news.yahoo.com/mars-one-colony-project-delays-manned-red-planet-153657202.html)
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At this rate, they'll be landing on Mars after the Kavithan Protectorate launches it first Seeding mission? ;)
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You assume they'll ever land...
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You assume they'll ever land...
As much as I'm assuming the Great Mistake from Beyond Earth will happen in real life. ;)
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... the Great Mistake from Beyond Earth ...
Do you mean, CivBE should not be created?
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A 'Great Mistake' implies lots of casualties. And a nuclear shoot-out in Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, North Korea, and perhaps other places, doesn't sound appealing as a future.
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Husband of volunteer Mars colonist worried about saying goodbye to wife forever (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=16755.msg78901#msg78901)
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"But seriously, the impossible will always remain so as long as nobody tries. I think it's really all about getting the ball rolling. Time, money, technology, imagination, etc"- Me, previously.
We got a man on the moon because the Russians put a satellite in orbit.
Who's to say that this couldn't set a chain of events in motion? What if the Russians and Chinese fear being left out, and join forces to stake a claim on Mars or the asteroids? Would NASA get a budget and a firm schedule if we feared the commies could drop rocks on us from outer space?
I figure that the odds of anybody achieving anything are astronomically greater once somebody gets serious enough to go public with a budget, a timeline, and a goal.
Attempting to achieve the impossible is what creates new technologies, materials and methods.
Learning how to balance Oxygen and CO2 has implications for Earth. We stand to gain a lot whenever we aspire.
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Hard to beat the Heinlein Effect - I didn't name that one.
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'Citizen Mars' Web Series Features Would-Be Red-Planet Colonists (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=16899.msg81067#msg81067)
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Neil deGrasse Tyson gave Mars One’s CEO a softball interview (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=17247.msg84995#msg84995)
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Mars One delays planned colonisation of Red Planet (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=18448.0)
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This CEO is betting on Mars but his business model is more Disney than SpaceX (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=19053.msg104451#msg104451)
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Mars, Venus, Jupiter: Millionaire Behind Red Planet Mission Wants to Colonize Entire Solar System (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=20607.msg110069#msg110069)
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I'd be more interested in seeing things like expansive deep-sea habitats.
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Delaying the time-table sounds like signs of realism to me. Talking about Venus colonies hanging from balloons, not so much.
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I'd be more interested in seeing things like expansive deep-sea habitats.
To wet the appetite? ;)
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I'd be more interested in seeing things like expansive deep-sea habitats.
To wet the appetite? ;)
LOL
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I'd be more interested in seeing things like expansive deep-sea habitats.
I want to terraform non-arable parts of Africa, and ship food to people on sea drones, somehow avoiding warlords collecting them up.
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Delaying the time-table sounds like signs of realism to me. Talking about Venus colonies hanging from balloons, not so much.
Inflatable Venusian cities aren't quite as far fetched as they sound. In fact, in a lot of ways, they might actually be more feasible than a martian colony.
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I'm just not seeing how humanity survives in a culture predicated on total engineering reliability. Nobody on Earth currently cares or is that conscientious about it. Need I point out Deepwater Horizon? We need a basic solution to the problem of human economic greed, otherwise it's going to dominate our behavior in any offworld experiments. Colonies will be founded, and everyone in them will die.
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Research stations in Antarctica are permanently staffed, with the continent having a couple thousand people there at all times. You can't live there without technology, but the people there get by okay for the most part.
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They can breathe the air. And strictly speaking you can live in Antarctica without much technology. Explorers have criss-crossed the continent over a century or so. You certainly need logistical supply, but the very air you breathe doesn't kill you. In short, they do not need "total engineering reliability" at all.
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The ISS has been continuously occupied for over 17 years. Nuclear submarines can stay underwater for years (or possibly even decades) at a time, with the only limiting factor being the food/supplies they choose to take down with them.
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They can breathe the air. And strictly speaking you can live in Antarctica without much technology. Explorers have criss-crossed the continent over a century or so. You certainly need logistical supply, but the very air you breathe doesn't kill you. In short, they do not need "total engineering reliability" at all.
There are chemical processes that could make breathable air a renewable resource on Venus. And that air is also what makes you float. This is one of the bigger reasons it makes more sense than Mars. Similar gravity to earth and an atmosphere that blocks most the radiation are also huge points in favor of Venus.
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They can breathe the air. And strictly speaking you can live in Antarctica without much technology. Explorers have criss-crossed the continent over a century or so. You certainly need logistical supply, but the very air you breathe doesn't kill you. In short, they do not need "total engineering reliability" at all.
There are chemical processes that could make breathable air a renewable resource on Venus. And that air is also what makes you float. This is one of the bigger reasons it makes more sense than Mars. Similar gravity to earth and an atmosphere that blocks most the radiation are also huge points in favor of Venus.
Yes, I see. Water in the atmosphere as well. I assume it's easier or takes less energy to send a payload towards the sun than away from it with proper planning.
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I assume it's easier or takes less energy to send a payload towards the sun than away from it with proper planning.
Not so. If it takes energy to climb up out of the sun's gravitational well, it also takes energy to stop yourself from slipping too far down the well.
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They can breathe the air. And strictly speaking you can live in Antarctica without much technology. Explorers have criss-crossed the continent over a century or so. You certainly need logistical supply, but the very air you breathe doesn't kill you. In short, they do not need "total engineering reliability" at all.
All the air those floating settlements would ever need can be found in the Venusian atmosphere. Certainly at the altitudes those settlements have to float anyway because of the temperature. considerations.
I assume it's easier or takes less energy to send a payload towards the sun than away from it with proper planning.
Not so. If it takes energy to climb up out of the sun's gravitational well, it also takes energy to stop yourself from slipping too far down the well.
Isn't the Venusian atmosphere more evenly layered, making aerobreaking in it safer then for instance Mars' atmosphere?
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They can breathe the air. And strictly speaking you can live in Antarctica without much technology. Explorers have criss-crossed the continent over a century or so. You certainly need logistical supply, but the very air you breathe doesn't kill you. In short, they do not need "total engineering reliability" at all.
All the air those floating settlements would ever need can be found in the Venusian atmosphere. Certainly at the altitudes those settlements have to float anyway because of the temperature. considerations.
I assume it's easier or takes less energy to send a payload towards the sun than away from it with proper planning.
Not so. If it takes energy to climb up out of the sun's gravitational well, it also takes energy to stop yourself from slipping too far down the well.
Isn't the Venusian atmosphere more evenly layered, making aerobreaking in it safer then for instance Mars' atmosphere?
I don't know that safer is the term I'd use considering the atmosphere, but more effective, sure.
To answer the overall question, it would be slightly 'cheaper', fuel wise, to hit Venus orbit, but not because it's closer to the sun, just due to the maths on the Hohman transfer are more favorable. To hit and 'land'/maintain an altitude roughly 30 miles above Venus, though? That's a good question.
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One would assume Venus never being as far away would have something to do with it.
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In this particular instance, that holds, but as a general rule, you can't simply measure distance to calculate costs when the two targets are in opposing directions.
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In fact, it might be more expensive for a round trip to Venus...
It certainly would be from the surface, but it might be from orbit, even.
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In fact, it might be more expensive for a round trip to Venus...
It certainly would be from the surface, but it might be from orbit, even.
No energy transfer to a departing vessel due to the long Venisian 'day'?
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Not sure how this will post...
But, yes, without the free aerobraking at Venus making the one way trip cheaper, a round trip is actually more expensive.
(http://i.imgur.com/SqdzxzF.png)
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Very neat.
Just because I'm curious and have no idea, Uno, where does your rocketry/orbital mechanics expertise come from?
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That chart is just like the London Underground! "Mind the gap."
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Just because I'm curious and have no idea, Uno, where does your rocketry/orbital mechanics expertise come from?
Mostly just conversations with the people who went to school and have the papers to prove it, but 20 years worth of those conversations.
My complete lack of formal education coupled with knowledge of the system and aptitude for orbital mechanics tends to shock a lot of folks.
It's always interesting to see the new engineers switch from talking down to me to asking me for my opinion.
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He's a rocket engineer for a living - or used to be; sounds like he's been getting stuck with administration more and more of late.
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Never been an engineer, they don't get dirty enough.
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Just because I'm curious and have no idea, Uno, where does your rocketry/orbital mechanics expertise come from?
Mostly just conversations with the people who went to school and have the papers to prove it, but 20 years worth of those conversations.
My complete lack of formal education coupled with knowledge of the system and aptitude for orbital mechanics tends to shock a lot of folks.
It's always interesting to see the new engineers switch from talking down to me to asking me for my opinion.
That sure beats my... I have a decent undergrad physics/astro education.
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I got great respect for people that can learn through the formal education process.
I'm lucky to have had a couple engineers in particular that recognized I wasn't just another schlubb and took it upon themselves to teach me. After that I knew enough to earn respect from most others.
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When reading this, I had to think back to the time a couple engineering students couldn't figure out how to reset the fuseboard in their student house.
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When reading this, I had to think back to the time a couple engineering students couldn't figure out how to reset the fuseboard in their student house.
Oh, to be sure, many of the engineers I know are so busy looking at their chosen knothole they don't even know the forest exists, but man, do they tend to know that knothole.
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I saw someone yesterday said Mars One had finally given up the ghost - anyone care to look around and link confirmation?
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Again, I never believed in this from the first I heard of it; much as I wish something like this would happen, the revenue stream projected -$6 billion- from the reality show was ludicrous, and I betcha that's short by about an order of magnitude on actual costs...
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The foundation itself hasn't given up, but seems to have publically recognized the mission is on hold because their financial holding (Mars One Ventures) became bankrupt due to a Swiss court ruling made in January this year.
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