Mars One - Human settlement of Mars in 2023

[Buster's Uncle]

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.

[JarlWolf]

 

[Geo]

In my language, "redden" means "to save".
RED MARS!

[Buster's Uncle]

Space Cadets line up for one-way Mars trip
Relaxnews
19 hours ago 



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

[Geo]

RED MARS!

[Buster's Uncle]

One-Way Mars Colony Project Draws 200,000 Volunteers
SPACE.com
by Megan Gannon, News Editor  5 hours ago 
 


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

They need to work up new concept art - that pic up there was old a year ago.

[Geo]

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?

[JarlWolf]

Yet somehow Artist work for free on this site? Just tell them they are going to Centauri 

[Geo]

Yet somehow Artist work for free on this site? Just tell them they are going to Centauri 

Thing is, if any artist here works for fees on SMACX-related stuff, he might face a court real soon.

[Buster's Uncle]

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



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

[Buster's Uncle]

Private Mars Lander Launching in 2018 Will Build on NASA Legacy
SPACE.com
By Tanya Lewis, Staff Writer  4 hours ago



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

[Geo]

Heh. Lot's of unmanned equipment is written about in these articles.

[Buster's Uncle]

Over a thousand candidates shortlisted for life on Mars
Reuters
4 hours ago



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

[Buster's Uncle]

One-way trip to Mars? Sign me up, says Frenchwoman
AFP
By Laurent Banguet  11 hours ago



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.



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.



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

[Buster's Uncle]

Private Martian Colony Project to Use New 'People's Map of Mars'
SPACE.com
By Mike Wall  7 hours ago



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://news.yahoo.com/private-martian-colony-project-peoples-map-mars-164900527.html