Project: Mars One

[S3rs]

Human Settlement on Mars?
Well yes, it sounds unbelievable (even for me), however this has all signs of a dead serious project. Mars One introduces a One way trip to the red planet to start a human settlement. Crews existing of four people, heavily trained for 9 years, will depart in 2024. The most interesting fact is that everyone can sign up.


Project: Mars One

Mars carries an unforgiving environment where a minor mistake can have the biggest impact. Every component must work perfectly. Every system (and its backup) must function without fail or human life is at risk. The idea that a trip to Mars consumes 7 months is a bit frightening, at least that is how I see it. I have been going through some FAQ and concluded that the future Mars settlers will be completely loose from Earth, apart from 2 satellites (these are scheduled for 2020). The satellites will orbit around Mars and allow settlers to communicate with our planet.

I myself find this very interesting, enough to share it here. You can find more info at:
http://mars-one.com

[iDamn]

Wow 

I'll stay on Earth, thanks.

[EnzoMortelli]

The fact that anyone can sign for it kinda takes this ad absurdum imo. As you mentioned

Every component must work perfectly. Every system (and its backup) must function without fail or human life is at risk.

I don't quite think anybody would be able to acquire the training and qualification necessary to pilot spacecraft.
Also, give it a shot and watch the application videos. They are hilarious. Even if this project is serious, the app vids look downright like pure fakes.

[S3rs]

I don't quite think anybody would be able to acquire the training and qualification necessary to pilot spacecraft.

Yes, but in 9 years of training, alot can be achieved. Real optimism is needed for this mission as there is zero knowledge about how life will be on a different planet. If you consider nowadays SmartPhones have even more computing power than we had with regular computers a few decades ago, you might understand that we are in a time where change and innovation is exponentially growing. We landed on the moon before, without knowing how it would be. This should be possible!

[EnzoMortelli]

imagine being stuck with the same 3 people for the rest of your life D:

The first Settlers will kill themselves before the third supply carrier arrives.

[BikeDriver]

lol.. i agree to the "No thanks, I stay."

I bet thousands of people signed up because they are sure, that this is the only chance they ever will get to become famous. Attention whores who are even willing to throw their lifes away to actually achieve "something". It's kinda sad.

No matter who it will be, the people who fly up there will not be heros, but mere fools.

Also this announcement that "anybody" can sign up is just advertisement in order to make money. They definitely have more than enough people who would be willing enough to ruin their lives. By no means do they need any civilian attention whores.

I bet at least 2 out of the 4 will have lost their mind by month 6 on mars. That's the time it will take these idiots to realize that all they will ever see again in their life is going to be brownish dust.

[mayhem]

Sounds interesting, heard some romanian girl was selected to fly on Mars.

[enkei]

I imagine they'd have mandatory mental health evaluations. 99% of the world is not capable of living in isolation - they'd legitimately probably kill themselves after a few years (or go literally insane and kill the others). Picture Yoda from Star Wars. That dude would be perfect for a trip like this. As where like, Jar Jar Binks would be a disaster.

The HAVE to be performing health evaluations to find the right people. If they aren't doing that - this plan will fail before it even leaves Earth.

[BikeDriver]

The HAVE to be performing health evaluations to find the right people. If they aren't doing that - this plan will fail before it even leaves Earth.

So how exactly are you going to test them?

There is no way to make sure that they wont go crazy on mars.

As long as it is only training, they always know that they will be able to see planet earth from up close again but once they are inside the rocket on their way to mars, there is no way back.

The only way to test them would be to fake the entire scenario, let them think that they are on mars but hide them in dugis garden () for 1 year.

[S3rs]

There is no way to make sure that they wont go crazy on mars.

What I did not describe yet is that the Mars population gets expanded by a new crew consisting of four people every 2 years.

Also, some interesting points. How will they imply laws on another planet? (Think about weed legalization, how trippy would it be to be extremely high on Mars!) How will they prevent the settlement meeting failure or insanity? Some ethical FAQ can be found here. It certainly does not cover what you would expect. Then again of all those people that signed up, or at least a percentage of them thought it over well enough to make a lifechanging decision.

I decided to picture it in my mind a little more and it almost seems like a surrealistic game scenario, yeah?

Like the game Fallout 3, where you meet the lands of where you used to live but totally destroyed by nuclear war. It comes very close to the martian landscape to say at least. Only there will be no trees, no buildings, nothing but dust.

[BikeDriver]

Well.. it might look like that one day but the people who are launched up there now won't witness that. Currently a space shuttle can transport 20 tons. Guess what the material for a bridge or a bulldozer weights lol.

I think the one thing, that might prevent people from going insane is, that there is still hope, that they might be transported back to earth in 20 - 30 years. Sounds kinda like being in prison. The same thing prevents people from going completly insane there.

[Runey]

sounds interesting but

Wow 

I'll stay on Earth, thanks.

i'm totally with idamn