Jump to content

Mars One - Anyone signed up for one-way ticket to Mars?


stijnovic

Recommended Posts

So I wonder, did anyone actually sign up for Mars One?

Because I am really excited about this initiative! I almost signed up, but I guess I rather play KSP than actually do it myself. But as they had more than 200.000 applicants, some (a lot!) of them must be playing KSP, right? :)

If you did (or didn't), what are your thoughts about it?

roadmap2024.jpg

Also, if you are enthusiastic about this project, check out their crowd-funding campaign to back the project. I especially like the "The First Visitors" T-shirt, it reminds me of the maneuver nodes in KSP! :wink:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There was a whole thread on Mars one a while ago. IIRC, it got locked after it digressed from its topic.

Mars one would need the infrastructure of a small nation, and the people to run it, to succeed. I don't see that happening anytime soon without billions, if not trillions, of dollars invested in it first.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wish them luck but I don't have much hope.

I guess they could get lucky and secure a huge contract for advertiseing , I could see coca cola paying a few hundred million for advertising rights! And I hear Lockheed and Boeing are in talks to provide very cut price parts and space X are giving decent prices. Its a long shot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unless an powerful nation such as the United States takes interest, there is not much hope.

The only way I can see it suceeding is if the US Goverment takes an interest and dictates NASA to fund them and share their expertise, but then it would be massive project with interests of national defense and technology under the jurisdiction of the US Government, not a TV show, and that will spoil a lot of stuff that was intended

Either way, if Mars One wants to make it go Mars by 2040, they got to start to appeal to nations like USA, China, Russia, .etc

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Either way, if Mars One wants to make it go Mars by 2040, they got to start to appeal to nations like USA, China, Russia, .etc

It seem to be peeking the intrest of a lot of big US aerospace companys and that's really the key as they likely have more spare change than in NASA entire budget. Also as its a EU project im guessing they will be looking for the ESA and Russian support.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think they actually have a chance of succeeding! We are shifting to a new era. An era where space travel will no longer be the domain of large nations, but of companies. And when there is a market, someone will do it. Many space-companies are growing and new ones, small and big are sprouting. At the same time it is very simple to reach out to a gigantic world-wide audience. So if their marketing is good, they can do it. There are many existing companies with a budget much bigger than is required for this mission. Anyway, that's what I like to think and I like to think positive.

So.. no one actually signed up? :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not to crush anyone's hopes, but I believe that the mission will fail. As (I think) Curiosity tested Orion's radiation shielding (almost said energy shielding :confused:), and the crew would under-go radiation poisoning. Now, since the Mars 1 team think that they'll get SpaceX to launch their stuff, I'm fairly sure that the Dragon-Rider has no plans of getting radiation shielding. IF SpaceX decides to help with the project, then the crews would have to under-go possible death just to get to Mars.

Safety first!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Safety first!

I agree. Safety first, mission objective second. If something did go wrong, let's say during the de-orbit burn to mars, would there be an abort mission? I mean, they can't really do much if that happens but what if they run out of fuel while they are in orbit. Would they have to wait until someone rescues them? (when I say rescue, I mean re-fuel them and then land on mars) The whole concept of abort on that mission is strange to me :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Putting aside the practicalities of hardware and mission profiles for a minute, the whole business plan for the mission is unsound. Hanging the fate of your astronauts on the popularity of a TV show is irresponsible IMO. The idea that they can maintain interest at high enough levels over several decades so that the whole mission can be funded by advertising is fantasy. They're basically betting on having the most popular, longest running TV show in history, and if they don't manage that, their astronauts die.

However, I'm pretty confident that they'll never get as far as sending anything to Mars. They'll continue to flog merchandise, in a few years they'll make a TV show about training their hopefuls, sell that around the world, and quietly fade out of existence.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

Mars one is just going to crash and burn after they realize they simply can't crowdsource a few billion dollars. A colony on Mars is a really big step from wandering around the Moon for a bit. If they were trying to stick a colony on the Moon I would be all for it. 3 days away from help is not bad. It wouldn't have to be one way, too. If there's trouble you aren't screwed over. And if you can establish mining operations there you would be able to get a little profit from it a bit by shipping helium-3 back to Earth on some kind of ferry that could be adapted from the Mars Transfer Vehicle.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree. Safety first, mission objective second. If something did go wrong, let's say during the de-orbit burn to mars, would there be an abort mission? I mean, they can't really do much if that happens but what if they run out of fuel while they are in orbit. Would they have to wait until someone rescues them? (when I say rescue, I mean re-fuel them and then land on mars) The whole concept of abort on that mission is strange to me :P

If they run out of fuel in orbit, something is definitly broken. They would have planned it exactly with error margins, not like in ksp. So if I were to be in a capsule that ran out of fuel in orbit I would've assumed that it most likely got a leak or some malfunctioning parts, and I definitely wouldn't just refuel and try to land because that would be the spaceflight equivalent of Russian roulette.

I personally don't think Mars One will succeed for reasons others have already pointed out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm going to make some Hypothesis/assumptions on this whole mars one thing. Don't blame me if you think I got it all wrong because I stated it's just my assumption.

1:You are either blind of reality and in trance with spaceflight would you cheerfully jump into this quest. (remember, its a one way trip for life in a very limited living space. something like a voluntary prison)

2:You are a very special person. You are one of those guys that leaves friends, family or any societal activities behind for life. Albeit the whole planet you came from. I think many of the petitioners don't give this much thought maybe the topic starter included. People on this planet get stress diseases for a whole lot less. People that would cope with such a adventure have to be screen tested to handle extreme stresses be it physical and emotional on a level only few people experience in their whole lifes. And most of those people are usually very unhappy. So if you petition for this perhaps you could think about this signing up to mars one a little bit more thouroughly. And don't give me talks about that you keep e-mail and broadcast connection to earth. Which probably still feels utterly disconnected to any real life social interactions especially since this wireless social connection has a downtime of 2x8minutes at the very least.

I think you are either a extremely strong human or a whackjob trying to find a escape from earth.

3:As of yet there is no information about protective radiation shielding on the human transport systems to mars. Meaning you may possibly die on the transfer to mars itself if the sun aims well enough. Which has a high enough chance so that you might rethink putting your life for it.

4:Earlier in human civilization great discoverers went to discover the unknown. And lots of them got KIA. Most of them by being kept ignorant about the dangers. Like the sailors and the privateers. Mars one however will be alot more dangerous then 18th century pirate life. And these pirate men were battle hardened workers with nothing much to lose that enabled them to endure hardships. I'm not so sure about many of the imo not so battle hardened mars one enthusiasts out there.

I just hope the mars one screening does it's job to pick the right ones so that only the people qualifying all the tests are to be chosen.

5: and the fifth thing is. Mars one will never lift of the ground (again a assumption)

6: besides KSP and going to the ISS, spaceflight itself imo is other then absolutely cool not such a romantic thing you might think. Atleast not on our level of technology.

Edited by Vaporized Steel
Link to comment
Share on other sites

As others say ... I also think that the mission will be shortlived.

If they make it to the planet and land safely, their colony IMHO will very soon succumb ...

due to psychological reasons (like intra group quarrels ... hell, they have to live together 24/7 [Parts of the Failures of Biosphere 2 also had to do with intra group dynamics])

due to technical reasons (due to laziness with care for the systems or some failures noone expected, with any help being months away)

due to biological reasons (plants and other biological things they are meant to grow there (foodstuff, O2) not growing as expected)

And I guess that afterwards (when the colony is dead) it will be a source of major biological contamination (houses finally getting ripped open due to lack of maintenance, exposing the innards (like corpses and remainders of plantations) to the martian atmosphere ... with results that noone can foretell exactly (like, for example, earth microbes getting a foothold on Mars)

Edited by Godot
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Personally, I think they should leave this to the top space organizations. We have not even sent a manned mission to Mars, yet they want to establish a permanent base there. Now if there would be a moon base, yeah I would support that but a permanent Mars settlement? No way. Its way out of our league. I may be wrong but this is just my opinion.

Edited by GalaxiesFinestToday
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hanging the fate of your astronauts on the popularity of a TV show is irresponsible IMO.

Indeed - no responsible space agency would select recruits by Facebook votes or fund an ongoing mission on ad revenue and reality TV. So this sounds like one big publicity stunt.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Does Columbus think about how danger his mission was?

Columbus was just a lucky fool. He made that voyage only because he calculated wrong the distance he had to travel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This thread is quite old. Please consider starting a new thread rather than reviving this one.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...