Mars One Project - Who's going?

...Both planets' orbits carry them to the same side of the Sun once every two years, at which point the distance between them totals roughly 55 million kilometers. At the opposite ends of their orbits – when Mars is one side of the Sun and Earth the other – this stretches to around 400 million. As communication signals travel at the speed of light, this means that it can take between 3 and 22 minutes for the information to reach the other end...

Not sure I could put up with that latency ;)
 
Aren't they partially funding it with the sale of TV rights?

Not sure if I want to go to Mars with a bunch of big brother rejects, not unless they want the 'Who's Spike going to force out of the air lock next?' show.
 
I signed up for the initial registration thingy, but it looks like I've missed a few steps.

Would go in a heartbeat, but I'm also not sure how I feel a about the whole "reality show" thing.
 
An Antarctic scientist recently hit the nail on the head by saying, that working in one of the most inhospitable places on earth is a luxury holiday compared to living on Mars. At least you can breathe the air and have a never ending supply of fresh water. Plus you still have extreme temperatures to overcome, and food is not easy to come by.

I just dont think we are ready for such a trip yet without further tech advancement.

But the biggest issue might be the difficulties doing EU team hunts with players back on earth. I'm sure there would be some serious lag.

Well I can't imagine there be much else to do, there's only so many red sand castles you can make before you get bored shitless.


Rick
 
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I signed up for the initial registration thingy, but it looks like I've missed a few steps.

Would go in a heartbeat, but I'm also not sure how I feel a about the whole "reality show" thing.

It might not start out like that, the BBC tried to do a show as a study in human interaction around the same time BB started where they put a group of people on an island and told them to be self sufficient. It started out with them only having a few shows a year but then BB started and they tried to turn it into it. Most of the those taking part were not happy and it invalidated the entire point of the show.

But you know how it would end up - 'this week, who ate the last of the raspberry yoghurt?'

From the picture of the habitat in 2125 everyone would get cabin fever within a week. Plus you've got the six month trip to get to mars before you even land. You couldn't send male and female due to pregnancies unless you sterilise everyone before they go because lets face their would be very little else for them to do although it would certainly make the 24/7/365 tv broadcast a little more entertaining then looking at a rock.

Why not do it on the moon first and prove the technology, at least there would be a chance you could get a rescue mission to them as it takes a few days to reach it. Plus they could get additional funding by manning a space telescope.
 
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But you know how it would end up - 'this week, who ate the last of the raspberry yoghurt?'

LOL!!!

and... Last night John went a bit stir-crazy and in panic opened the airlock killing both himself and 4 other contestents....including red hot Gemma...viewing figures are down 4 million overnight.

however.....in other news... Jackie was caught hording the last the of the toilet roll due to her monthly lady problems, whist Jim, punched Mike in the face for stealing his personal two biscuit crumb quota.

Stay tuned.

Rick
 
I had a good look around Mars One's website the other week after BBC's website ran a story on the mission. In transit you'd have less than the space of an average broom cupboard (they did quantify it but I can't remember the figure) while around 1000 cubic metres of breathable space would be available between the four settlers on the planet. That's not much (e.g, 10m x 10m x 10m between four people) when the likelihood is that's all you're going to get until the end of your days.

Another thing that seemed not right - most of that space would be inside inflatable habitats... which would then be buried, by the settlers, under 5 metres of Martian soil to protect against radiation.

Five metres? Or around sixteen feet? Over inflatables...? Really?
 
I'll go, but i need your help. Now taking donations of ethernet cables and adapters!!!!!
 
I'm aware of plans to use inflatables in space, but to bury them? Air pressure would have to support the weight of five metres thick of soil. It just seems unlikely to work to me.

Remember the weight would be less because of the lower gravity.
 
Remember the weight would be less because of the lower gravity.

Would still be heavy... and suck if there was a sharp rock in the dirt they cover with :laugh:
 
I signed my ex wife up. I hope she wins.

We can start up our own reality show mars expedition.

Mars X-Mission

Sending eXes where no eX has gone before!
 
I'm aware of plans to use inflatables in space, but to bury them? Air pressure would have to support the weight of five metres thick of soil. It just seems unlikely to work to me.



inflatable does not necessarily mean that it will only be supported by air. it means it will be easy to transport due to smaller size, and likely light-weight material. they will probably send something along the lines of a carbon fiber "skeleton structure" to be placed inside to help support the weight of the soil used, and increase structure strength overall. Although I am not exactly sure of the limits of the current and upcoming generation of 3d printers, but those should help out alot as far as construction of parts go.


The most crucial part of a succesfull mission will be not only the availibility of ice (water/air) but other resources that are easy to extract and process, preferably by tools already send on the initial flights, or at a later point (in cases where man-powered extraction/excavation will be non-sufficient) will be needed aswell. One of the things I would stress myself is a backup alternative to solar power generation other then batteries. An example would be geothermal or wind power, or atleast those are the first 2 I came up with. As stated on their website atomic power generation is not feasable at this time, so it will not be used (GL getting all the materials required for a friggin nuclear power plant over there, not to mention the enormous excess of power, cooling, etc. produced or needed even if it was very small scale. Add to that having to teach 2 people to be able to do the job...well you get the idea.)


I have placed my interest in this project, and will be doing some info-searching (time permitted) into the subject.


As far as reality tv goes... well, it's part of the job I guess, and I can understand the need for recording events as they happen. however if you feel you need privacy or don't want to be on camera while you are in space or on mars... just cover the camera lense with something. Not like they can do anything about that anyway.
 
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One of the things I would stress myself is a backup alternative to solar power generation other then batteries. An example would be geothermal or wind power, or atleast those are the first 2 I came up with.
The problem with wind power is the atmosphere is so thin that they'd only get power during a sandstorm, and then the sand particles in the air would likely cause cavitation of the fins on any windmill, giving it a short working life.
 
OK, taking it a little more seriously this time.

A good test would be send the candidates to the arctic or Antarctic remote research stations, the cramped living conditions and remoteness especially during winter where any research bases are completely isolated would atleast let the candidates know what the living conditions could end up being like.

You can't just quit and walk out of the door, you're living in close proximity with other people for extended periods of time, you're reliant on technology to keep you alive and safe from an environment that would kill you. You couldn't rely on outside help which could be months away.

Geothermal is likely out as Mars is currently considered a dead planet as no one has seen an active volcano, it's certainly not as active as Earth.

Solar power is probably the best bet but it depends on where the base is, the rovers had to be shutdown during winter to conserve power using what little they did preserving the onboard electronics. Or it's going to have to be nuclear. In either case it will have to be sizeable as it will need to operate all the life support and test equipment.
 
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An Antarctic scientist recently hit the nail on the head by saying, that working in one of the most inhospitable places on earth is a luxury holiday compared to living on Mars. At least you can breathe the air and have a never ending supply of fresh water. Plus you still have extreme temperatures to overcome, and food is not easy to come by.

I just dont think we are ready for such a trip yet without further tech advancement.

But the biggest issue might be the difficulties doing EU team hunts with players back on earth. I'm sure there would be some serious lag.

Well I can't imagine there be much else to do, there's only so many red sand castles you can make before you get bored shitless.


Rick

I saw the documentary on how current the south pole instalations were built.

If something on our planet is that hard I can't imagine what it would take to make anything decent on Mars.
 
I wish I could go, but wife would not be happy. If I knew this was coming I would be single!
 
Why not do it on the moon first and prove the technology, at least there would be a chance you could get a rescue mission to them as it takes a few days to reach it.

That's exactly the question that is answered early on in The Case for Mars, a fascinating read by Robert Zubrin. The main reason is that the moon can never be more than an expensive pit stop on the way to somewhere else because it lacks resources (in particular Mars has a lot more water). The hydrogen in the water is important for much of the early industry that will be necessary to bootstrap a colony, apart from any more basic uses like drinking. The oxygen is also a useful byproduct of the hydrolysis but isn't quite as hard to come by as hydrogen is. The CO2 available in the atmosphere and ice cap of Mars is also important as a source of carbon for industry. The moon has no CO2...

The book also describes how things would be done so that there would be an exit strategy before anyone arrives. That's far better than taking an expensive detour to the moon. It's not like you have an emergency and call 911 for help when you're off planet (be it on the moon, Mars or even as "close" as the ISS)... just doesn't work that way.

I was blown away by that book when i first read it ten years ago. First, by the convincing case it makes that we could, even in the 1990s, have established a permanent presence on Mars for what we have been spending on space programs anyway. Second, by the realization of just how much politics/n.i.h. syndrome has prevented NASA from doing something substantive like this instead of pursuing abortive plans and throwaway missions/technology.

This is the first i've heard of Mars One but i'm going to look into it more closely. If they are allied with the Mars Foundation (an organization Zubrin helped established that has been elaborating every detail of the Mars colonization process for years now), i'd say they'd got a good chance. I would seriously consider signing up if it is possible, but that's obviously not something to be decided on a moment's notice. In any case, i'm excited to see something being planned finally for a colony on Mars. It's overdue.
 
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What Doer said.


I looked into this in some detail a few months ago, as well as a few other projects. This one seems the most well thought out, although I think their budget is unrealistic, it will likely end up costing 3 times more than that, hell, the smelter I work at cost nearly double their budget.

This has long been a dream of mine, to the point that, for the last 10 years, whenever I start dating a new woman i tell them that if there is ever a manned mission to Mars I want on it. A couple of them even said they would go with me :).

IMO, the necessary tech is here to execute the mission as planned, however, i do think there are a couple of things that could scuttle it:

  • Funding: Like I said, I'm expecting this thing to go at least 200% over budget, plus, people may just not find watching people run on a treadmill and undergo psyche evaluations for a few years all that interesting. BUT, I think if the project does manage to gain some decent momentum, some the other Mars institutes, wealthy space enthusiasts, and perhaps even some government space programs might throw a bit of coin behind it.
  • Radiation: Because the effects of this are not yet fully understood, it's hard to approach the problem. I do think they need to nail down how they intend to address it before anything leaves the ground. @Dusk; I think the plan was to put the habitats in lava tubes underground, so there may not actually be any weight resting on the habitat. I'm sure this sort of thing would be fully planned and tested though.
  • Cabin Fever: It may just not be possible for a small group of people to share a confined space indefinitely; I'm not sure it's ever really been tested to the extent necessary. I am sure though that a large part of the selection and training process will involve choosing people with conducive mental attitudes and preparing them psychologically for the situation.

I'm still deciding if I want to apply, I'm really not sure if I'm ok with the reality show thing and I dislike the idea of having to do a whole social media campaign.
 
Aren't they partially funding it with the sale of TV rights?

Not sure if I want to go to Mars with a bunch of big brother rejects, not unless they want the 'Who's Spike going to force out of the air lock next?' show.


If they do req. realityshows attached, im sure we will se a new form of species developing. Sorta like sookie on mars heh-heh-heh
 
[*]Radiation: Because the effects of this are not yet fully understood, it's hard to approach the problem. I do think they need to nail down how they intend to address it before anything leaves the ground. @Dusk; I think the plan was to put the habitats in lava tubes underground, so there may not actually be any weight resting on the habitat. I'm sure this sort of thing would be fully planned and tested though.

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If the plan is to use lava tubes underground then I'd love to know how they're going to find them, given that Mankind has barely scratched the surface (literally) of Mars.

I'd love for Mankind to get to Mars and beyond, but really this whole idea feels doomed to failure for me. A confined space for the colonists, not just for 500+ days (intolerable enough) but until they turn up their toes. They'll probably get cabin fever or go nuts or kill each other over something trivial.

Its all very well this mission being based on existing technology, but its my belief that the technology to launch larger vessels to orbit and beyond needs researching. The ability to launch heavier, wider vehicles into space would give a Mars mission more chance of success, in my opinion.
 
The other consideration is what to do with a crew member if they do have a breakdown.

Star crazy: Plans deal with breakdowns in space
It turns out NASA has a detailed set of written procedures for dealing with a suicidal or psychotic astronaut in space. The documents, obtained this week by The Associated Press, say the astronaut’s crewmates should bind his wrists and ankles with duct tape, tie him down with a bungee cord and inject him with tranquilizers if necessary.

Temporary sedation is ok in orbit but when you're millions of miles away you can't keep people that way permanently.

There's also other medical needs, it would be nearly impossible to take every drug that could possibly be needed so I would have thought it's not only the persons medical condition but they'd need to take a detailed look into their family history as well.
 
A good test would be send the candidates to the arctic or Antarctic remote research stations, the cramped living conditions and remoteness especially during winter where any research bases are completely isolated would atleast let the candidates know what the living conditions could end up being like.

If I recall right, they intend to do something just like that. They're naturally also going to have quite stringent physical, emotional and behavioural requirements on the candidates who get accepted even before that.

The Case for Mars, a fascinating read by Robert Zubrin.

Oooh, good book, I'd forgotten it!
 
I looked at the internet connection and realized i could not play entropia and there are no RL mobs on Mars to substitute that so that decided it for me. No Mars trip.
 
been there already, nothing interesting. Rocks, sand, dust few hills. Some other planets were much better ( even moon )
 
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