How about a Real life as a space colonist? Mars One project needs astronauts for Mars in 2022

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(From Wired Online)

Help Wanted: Astronauts Needed for Mars Colony

By Nadia Drake
01.08.13


Mars One, a nonprofit organization based in the Netherlands, intends to establish a human settlement on Mars in 2023.

They need astronauts.

Anyone on planet Earth can apply if they meet the basic requirements. But obviously, the job isn’t for just anyone.

Today, Mars One released its application criteria. Among other virtues, astronaut candidates must have “a deep sense of purpose, willingness to build and maintain healthy relationships, the capacity for self-reflection and ability to trust. They must be resilient, adaptable, curious, creative and resourceful.” And be at least 18 years old (no maximum age has been set).

The selection process will begin during the first half of 2013. Mars One experts and viewers of a “global, televised program” — think reality TV where the prize could be a trip to a dry, dusty world — will choose from among the applications. Those ultimately selected will be assembled into teams of four. At least six teams are supposed to be ready to launch in September 2022. But only one team will make the first trip to the Red Planet, and that team will be decided democratically.

“The people of Earth will have a vote which group of four will be the first Earth ambassadors on Mars,” the Mars One website says. Subsequent teams will be sent in two-year intervals.

At least eight years of training will be provided before launch, including simulated missions, practice in a restricted mobility environment, and lessons in electronics, equipment repair, basic and critical medical care. In 2016, the company plans to begin rocketing supplies to Mars, including spare parts, two rovers, and living units that can be assembled into a base once humans arrive.

But it’s a one-way trip for all involved: Once on Mars, there’s no coming back.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/01/mars-astronaut-requirements/
 
Applying as soon as the process opens :)
 
I will apply, there should be some nice mining discoveries, I hope.
 
with the latency there playing EU is impossible, so i stay on good old blue home
 
will there be mobs to hunt? will i revive if i forget my space suit going outside?

if not then no! :silly:

Sok
 
If I didn't wreck my left wrist.. I would be all up in there.. :yay:
 
Amazes me that people who are apparently scientific like these guys fail with basic science. Mars has no molten core = no magnetic field = dead planet. Simples.

You couldn't survive with all the oxygen in the world there.
 
Amazes me that people who are apparently scientific like these guys fail with basic science. Mars has no molten core = no magnetic field = dead planet. Simples.

You couldn't survive with all the oxygen in the world there.

This has not been confirmed, in fact I think the most recent theories are leaning toward it still having a partially molten core. And it does have a magnetosphere, albeit much weaker than Earth's.
 
I will apply, there should be some nice mining discoveries, I hope.

I'd be more concerned about food, water, and shelter.


Oh yeah... and oxygen. :)
 
I'd be more concerned about food, water, and shelter.

Oh yeah... and oxygen. :)

Well shelter can be built, of course... Water could probably be taken by melting and purifying ice taken from Mars itself, since there is such huge amounts of it.

Oxygen and food can be provided by creating large greenhouses.



I'd say the biggest problems are rather:
- Power generation (solar power wouldn't be very effective while wind power plants would probably get worn out rather quickly, etc).
- Heating (that planet is very cold).
- Enough light for the plants to grow well (especially during the dust storms that can last for several months and block out what little natural light comes).
 
Well shelter can be built, of course... Water could probably be taken by melting and purifying ice taken from Mars itself, since there is such huge amounts of it.

Oxygen and food can be provided by creating large greenhouses.



I'd say the biggest problems are rather:
- Power generation (solar power wouldn't be very effective while wind power plants would probably get worn out rather quickly, etc).
- Heating (that planet is very cold).
- Enough light for the plants to grow well (especially during the dust storms that can last for several months and block out what little natural light comes).

You read too much science fiction :)

http://www-ssc.igpp.ucla.edu/personnel/russell/papers/mars_mag/
 
You lost me at the "real life" part... :D

I would love a solitary watch like Sam's in the "Moon" (minus the dying part, of course), but to share a one way trip to a dead rock with a bunch of other freaks, hell no.
 
How would anything in that paper prevent any of what I said?

How would it for example stop colonists from growing food plants in pressurized greenhouses? Or extracting ice from the poles and use it to make drinking water?

She's refering to the fact that solar winds, without the protection of a strong magnetosphere would likely kill the colonists (cancer) within a couple of years. So they wouldn't be able to do any of that stuff on account of being dead :).

This is a serious concern, however there are potentially feasible solutions even with current technology. Taking into account future developments, I don't think this would prove insurmountable.
 
She's refering to the fact that solar winds, without the protection of a strong magnetosphere would likely kill the colonists (cancer) within a couple of years. So they wouldn't be able to do any of that stuff on account of being dead :).

This is a serious concern, however there are potentially feasible solutions even with current technology. Taking into account future developments, I don't think this would prove insurmountable.

Ah, yes, true... Though as you say, there might be some way to counter that as well. Some kind of shielding cloth or an artificial magnetic field maybe? I have no idea how feasible stuff like that is :laugh:
 
How would anything in that paper prevent any of what I said?

How would it for example stop colonists from growing food plants in pressurized greenhouses? Or extracting ice from the poles and use it to make drinking water?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionizing_radiation#Biological_effects
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_radiation

Radiation is solid-penetrating. E=mc^2 (mass-energy equivalence); there isn't enough energy generated by the mass to stop penetration.

(Low-energy X-Rays are stopped from penetration via lead in hospitals. High energy radiation? No way).

This isn't just a problem for humans (i.e. Cancer), but any organic matter and most electrical equipment is affected. Plants simply would not survive in whatever greenhouse you can imagine: If there is sunlight; then there is not enough mass to remove cosmic radiation aswell. Yes, they could be sub-surface (far) greenhouses with artificial lighting but again this is so far into science fiction it's getting silly. You would need a powersource, of which there is no feasible source.

A magnetic field provides the energy required to turn the beta particles and charged ions of cosmic radiation into harmless particles. Without it, you be dead.

Space is all well and lovely in films and books, but in harsh reality these all spawned from romanticism about going to the moon in the 60's. Look at the difficulty getting, what is essentially a very simple robotic device on earth, working on Mars.

You think it's possible to send humans there in 10 years? Nope. 50? Nope. 100? Probs not. The technical challenges are incredibly great - and there is very little fundamental science left to "discover" which would help the course.

Sorry for being a kill joy, but it's fiiiiiiiictiiiiiiion.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionizing_radiation#Biological_effects
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_radiation

Radiation is solid-penetrating. E=mc^2 (mass-energy equivalence); there isn't enough energy generated by the mass to stop penetration.

(Low-energy X-Rays are stopped from penetration via lead in hospitals. High energy radiation? No way).

This isn't just a problem for humans (i.e. Cancer), but any organic matter and most electrical equipment is affected. Plants simply would not survive in whatever greenhouse you can imagine: If there is sunlight; then there is not enough mass to remove cosmic radiation aswell. Yes, they could be sub-surface (far) greenhouses with artificial lighting but again this is so far into science fiction it's getting silly. You would need a powersource, of which there is no feasible source.

A magnetic field provides the energy required to turn the beta particles and charged ions of cosmic radiation into harmless particles. Without it, you be dead.

Space is all well and lovely in films and books, but in harsh reality these all spawned from romanticism about going to the moon in the 60's. Look at the difficulty getting, what is essentially a very simple robotic device on earth, working on Mars.

You think it's possible to send humans there in 10 years? Nope. 50? Nope. 100? Probs not. The technical challenges are incredibly great - and there is very little fundamental science left to "discover" which would help the course.

Sorry for being a kill joy, but it's fiiiiiiiictiiiiiiion.

Yeah but it will be a nice revival of the (also Dutch) Big brother on TV, which would fund the project. And we can see them dieing live on tv! Thats reality tv for ya... "running man", "the truman show", "gamer" eat your heart out..
 
You think it's possible to send humans there in 10 years? Nope. 50? Nope. 100? Probs not. The technical challenges are incredibly great - and there is very little fundamental science left to "discover" which would help the course.

Hm, I seriously doubt you could be 100% sure "there is very little fundamental science left to "discover"", since what we think we know about the universe could be changed at any time...


Even so, thinking about and discussing those things (even if some of it is dreaming, fiction, etc) is very important to at least get an interest going. We have to develop some way of leaving Earth at some point, and the faster (and more) we start preparing or researching for it, the faster we can come to some kind of possible sollution to problems that might pop up.

Sure, Mars One might fail to send people to Mars... But at least they are generating an interest for it, which may get more people wanting to be either directly involved, or willing to fund stuff like that (either by investing in private companies or as a taxpayer to state owned companies).


Instead of simply saying "Not feasible" and "impossible", it is better to say "to do that, we would have to..." :)
 
Hm, I seriously doubt you could be 100% sure "there is very little fundamental science left to "discover"", since what we think we know about the universe could be changed at any time...


Even so, thinking about and discussing those things (even if some of it is dreaming, fiction, etc) is very important to at least get an interest going. We have to develop some way of leaving Earth at some point, and the faster (and more) we start preparing or researching for it, the faster we can come to some kind of possible sollution to problems that might pop up.

Sure, Mars One might fail to send people to Mars... But at least they are generating an interest for it, which may get more people wanting to be either directly involved, or willing to fund stuff like that (either by investing in private companies or as a taxpayer to state owned companies).


Instead of simply saying "Not feasible" and "impossible", it is better to say "to do that, we would have to..." :)

Ok..

To do that we would have to... be dreaming.

:wtg:
 
Ok..

To do that we would have to... be dreaming.

:wtg:

Come on now, there must be some at least theoretical way to overcome these problems. Else, no one would bother working with it.
 
Or we drill a hole in mars, build a base deep inside and employ 4 tour de france champions to cycle 10 hours a day for energy supply for the plants to grow properly down there and do other stuff for reality TV and survival in the remaining time ;)
The heat generated by 4 human bodies while cycling will also be sufficient for survival if deep enough inside the planet.
Alternatively some nuklear power plants could be placed in great distance to the habitat and no one would need to worry if one of them explodes in awhile ;)
 
Part of me would love to go on this mission, but I'd probably end up going stir crazy inside a week.

As for radiation, (without reading the links) I thought science was banking on carbon nanotubes to be the solution. Not that it'll be much of an issue if they can't get around the detrimental effect of the lower gravity.

Nice to know I'm not the only geek on here. ;)
 
Ok, so let's for a moment imagine they manage to get there and survive all of the adversities.

What's to stop them from going "Ya know what? Screw all these cameras... *smash*"? Also, a very high probability for random weirdos who are ok with being sent on such a trip (no offense to anybody here who would be interested) to have underlying psychological conditions, which they may not even be aware of and could pass undetected in a psych evaluation, that could very well surface after a bit of forced cohabitation with other people that aren't even their relatives or friends and end up in suicide or mass murder.

I know the above goes for astronauts as well, but astronauts are usually handpicked from the military over years of observation, then years of training. Here they're just getting a bunch of people that sign up for it and doing a quick screening for the best. And their definition of best is probably more leaning towards the TV aspect than the astronaut aspect.
 
Not that it'll be much of an issue if they can't get around the detrimental effect of the lower gravity.

Yeah, I read that they were not 100% sure how bad it would be on Mars (as there is some gravity there), but that they had some idea of having the colonists sleep in some kind of centrifuge-like thingy to compensate :dunno:

Another problem (that they found out via the recent much-critizised Russian experiment with 6 guys living together to simulate a Mars journey) would be that the sleep cycle seems to end up completely wrong since they can not rely on the sunlight as much as they usually would
 
Yeah, I read that they were not 100% sure how bad it would be on Mars (as there is some gravity there), but that they had some idea of having the colonists sleep in some kind of centrifuge-like thingy to compensate :dunno:

Another problem (that they found out via the recent much-critizised Russian experiment with 6 guys living together to simulate a Mars journey) would be that the sleep cycle seems to end up completely wrong since they can not rely on the sunlight as much as they usually would
The centrifuge would generate artificial gravity, however it would need to be a relatively large structure to avoid motion sickness caused by the difference in gravity between the head and the feet (I think its called the Coriolis effect, or similar).

I'd have though timed artificial lighting (false windows) would be a simple remedy to sleep pattern problems.
 
The centrifuge would generate artificial gravity, however it would need to be a relatively large structure to avoid motion sickness caused by the difference in gravity between the head and the feet (I think its called the Coriolis effect, or similar).

That'd be assuming they sleep while standing up. ;)
 
I'd have though timed artificial lighting (false windows) would be a simple remedy to sleep pattern problems.

Yes, but the problem they had in the experiement was that they were apparently not strong enough or something... One of the people in the event actually got stuck in a 25 hour cycle, so after 12 days he was completely opposite the others
 
That'd be assuming they sleep while standing up. ;)
Or don't need to go for a jimmy-riddle in the middle of the night. :laugh:

They'd either need individually functioning sleeping pods or to stop it spinning every time someone wanted a slash.
 
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