Aloha717200 From United States of America, joined Aug 2003, 4397 posts, RR: 17 Posted (4 months 1 week 3 days 23 hours ago) and read 2195 times:
Found this fascinating story online:
Quote: The Netherlands-based nonprofit Mars One, which hopes to put the first boots on the Red Planet in 2023, released its basic astronaut requirements today (Jan. 8), setting the stage for a televised global selection process that will begin later this year.
Mars One isn't zeroing in on scientists or former fighter pilots; anyone who is at least 18 years old can apply to become a Mars colony pioneer. The most important criteria, officials say, are intelligence, good mental and physical health and dedication to the project, as astronauts will undergo eight years of training before launch.
"Gone are the days when bravery and the number of hours flying a supersonic jet were the top criteria," Norbert Kraft, Mars One's chief medical director and a former NASA researcher, said in a statement. "Now, we are more concerned with how well each astronaut works and lives with the others, in the long journey from Earth to Mars and for a lifetime of challenges ahead."
Mars One plans to launch a series of robotic cargo missions between 2016 and 2021, which will build a habitable Red Planet outpost ahead of the arrival of the first four colonists in 2023. More settlers will arrive every two years after that. There are no plans to return the pioneers to Earth.
Anyone think this will actually happen? I have a hard time believing any company would pull this off in just 10 years time, but I could be wrong! Would you want to sign up for this?
Apparently they're going to fund this by documenting the whole thing as a reality TV series, from the selection all the way up to the colonization of mars. TV ratings will fund space travel.
DeltaMD90 From United States of America, joined Apr 2008, 5309 posts, RR: 47 Reply 1, posted (4 months 1 week 3 days 23 hours ago) and read 2190 times:
No, too uncertain. But if in the future, I definitely would go (if the transit time isn't years)
It's good to see someone trying to expand space travel. The American in me wishes it was NASA, but we didn't elect Newt Gingrich, so I doubt we'll see many space colonies
Aesma From France, joined Nov 2009, 4789 posts, RR: 9 Reply 2, posted (4 months 1 week 3 days 21 hours ago) and read 2140 times:
I guess they read the Mars trilogy and liked it !
The idea of funding the thing with TV makes me think of the TV series canceled too soon, Defying Gravity. In it the spationauts must film commercials and stuff like that (it's an anecdote in the series, not what it is about).
I think it's too little, too soon, though. 4 colonists can't work in my opinion, you have to send I don't know, 10 at least, to set up the base. And too soon because, well, we still don't have commercial space tours running, or the promised orbital hotels. And if things go pear shaped, will TV viewers be ready to found a rescue mission ? Will they just watch the colonists die ?
As for the selection, while being a scientist or a fighter pilot might not be needed it can't hurt either, or at least engineers and people that are very good with their hands. I mean, they don't need secretaries !
I'll study it, if it doesn't look that bad and I have my chances at their selection, I would go for it, although 8 years as a reality TV "star" before take off seems like hell.
New Technology is the name we give to stuff that doesn't work yet. Douglas Adams
wb556 From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2011, 29 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (4 months 6 days 11 hours ago) and read 1753 times:
I guess that a fundamental point, things are much cheaper when you don't have to bring anyone back. I do find the idea a little unsettling, the subject would be televised human guineapigs. If you are going to establish a permanent colony then you will need a couple of doctors and other medical staff capable of performing surgical procedures in the first wave. I would think it would be hard to find such individuals willing to gamble with the rest of their lives.
petertenthije From Netherlands, joined Jul 2001, 3231 posts, RR: 13 Reply 5, posted (4 months 6 days 3 hours ago) and read 1721 times:
Quoting wb556 (Reply 4): I would think it would be hard to find such individuals willing to gamble with the rest of their lives.
I think you seriously underestimate the amount of people living on earth. You only need a half dozen or so, maybe a dozen at most. People go on suicide missions for less spectacular results then a Mars voyage. Not that I am going to volunteer mind you!
Aesma From France, joined Nov 2009, 4789 posts, RR: 9 Reply 6, posted (4 months 6 days ago) and read 1698 times:
Yes wb556 after writing that first post I went to bed and thought about it for a couple hours more, and it only reinforced my view that the project doesn't seem serious at this point, including because it didn't mention that one of the first crew members would have to be a doctor.
And the idea that no return voyage means a simpler mission is only true if you plan a mission that ends in the death of the crew, if they're going to colonize Mars then you have to send tons and tons of hardware, far more than just a small spaceship to take-off from the surface. Your only real gain is that you don't need the fuel to come back.
New Technology is the name we give to stuff that doesn't work yet. Douglas Adams
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