Mars Colonization Mission Now Taking Applications

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Mars Colonization Mission Now Taking Applications

Mars One is looking for would-be colonists for a one-way journey to Mars in 2023.

One of the biggest challenges facking any mission to Mars is the return trip. Getting there isn't really a big deal as these things go, but getting home is a different story. The obvious solution is also the one that almost nobody is willing to even consider: a one-way voyage. Send people off to get the party started, and leave them there.

The Netherlands-based Mars One is willing to consider it, however, and not just that. The not-for-profit organization is now accepting applications from wanna-be astronauts willing to make the journey, and because of the nature of the mission it's not necessarily looking for the typical lantern-jawed, best-of-the-best, "Right Stuff" kind of guys; instead, it's after people who are creative, highly adaptable and, most important of all, unlikely to kill each other after months and years cooped up together in a tiny space.

"A grounded, deep sense of purpose will help each astronaut maintain his or her psychological stability and focus as they work together toward a shared and better future," the Mars One site states. "Mars One cannot stress enough the importance of an applicant's capacity for self-reflection. Without this essential foundation, the five key characteristics listed below cannot be utilized to the fullest potential."

Those five "key characteristics" are resiliency, adaptability, curiosity, creativity/resourcefulness and the ability to trust. Applicants must also be 18 years of age or older, in good physical and mental health - disease-free, good eyesight, no drug dependencies, that sort of thing - and stand between 5'1" and 6'2". Applications may be made in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Russian, Arabic, Chinese Mandarin, Korean, Indonesian or Japanese, but the official mission language will be English, which successful candidates will be expected to learn as their training progresses.

The first launch team, currently planned to go in September 2022, will comprise only four members in order to keep the cost and complexity of the mission at a manageable level. Multiple four-person groups will be trained, however, and given the long term, close quarters and intensity of the mission training, if even just one member of the team decides to leave the program at any time, the whole team will be removed from rotation, with remaining members given the option of restarting the training from the very beginning with a new member. The first colonist group will be joined by new teams every two years.

As ridiculous and crazy as it sounds, there's a certain look of legitimacy to the Mars One website and its program doesn't come across as entirely insane. The mission plan is vague but detailed enough to sound convincing, and the decision to use a SpaceX Falcon Heavy for the trip, a modified version of the Falcon 9 rocket that's already successfully put the Dragon spacecraft into orbit, makes sense; SpaceX plans to begin test flights of the Falcon Heavy this year and has provided Mars One with a letter of interest. I don't want to say that this thing might actually work, but I'm starting to think that this thing might actually work.

Source: Mars One [http://applicants.mars-one.com/]

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CardinalPiggles

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Jun 24, 2010
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I'll go!

most important of all, unlikely to kill each other after months and years cooped up together in a tiny space
Well damn.

I guess I'll have to wait until it becomes popular.
 

DRTJR

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Aug 7, 2009
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Does type one diabetes count. because I would love to go and I'm not a violent person.
 

Nurb

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Dec 9, 2008
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"stuffing people into a small space for an extended period of time on another planet... You'll love it!"
-Mars One, Subsidiary of Vault Tec, who in no way has a secret experiment in mind


Man, you'll be spending at least 10-15 years up there before you can get a vehicle to give you a return trip, and mars isn't all that super-fun on the surface.
 

RJ Dalton

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Aug 13, 2009
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They're making a media spectacle of it.

. . .

Does anyone else get the idea that this might just be intended to get rid of the sort of people who'd do anything to get on TV?
 

Quaxar

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Sep 21, 2009
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DRTJR said:
Does type one diabetes count. because I would love to go and I'm not a violent person.
I think you gotta have your own insulin with you at all times, so it doesn't look good for Diabetics.
 

RedDeadFred

Illusions, Michael!
May 13, 2009
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If only I didn't have poor eyesight... I could save up enough money to get laser eye surgery between now and then.

Then again, I'd probably miss my family too much.
 

Nowhere Man

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Mar 10, 2013
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Will there be an insurance plan covering the encounter of a hostile alien species? I know what happened to the colonists on LV-426. You're not getting me this time Netherlands.
 

hotdogoctopus

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Jun 16, 2009
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38 USD to apply? I dunno man. Seems a little 'scam-ish' for the "Interplanetary Media Group" a company which would traditionally rely on investors to need me to pay a fee to have my application thrown through the sifter...
 

A Satanic Panda

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Nov 5, 2009
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Once we prove that a permanent lunar base is feasible, then I'll go to Mars.

Supplies/Rescue mission being 3 days away sound a helluva lot better than 3 years away.
 

Phlakes

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Mar 25, 2010
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Yeah, I'm sure 19 year old armchair philosophers are exactly who you want to man a colonization mission. Not people like scientists, or mechanics, or, I don't know, actual trained astronauts.
 

Nurb

Cynical bastard
Dec 9, 2008
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Desert Punk said:
Nurb said:
"stuffing people into a small space for an extended period of time on another planet... You'll love it!"
-Mars One, Subsidiary of Vault Tec, who in no way has a secret experiment in mind


Man, you'll be spending at least 10-15 years up there before you can get a vehicle to give you a return trip, and mars isn't all that super-fun on the surface.
I loved that, but its a bit worse that you think.

Emigration ? The Mars One astronauts will depart Earth assuming that they will never return. This radically changes the mission requirements, reducing the need for return vehicles associated with currently unavailable technologies and far greater costs.

Furthermore, there is a point in time after which the human body will have adjusted to the 38% gravitation field of Mars, and be incapable of returning to the Earth's much stronger gravity. This is due to the total physiological change in the human body, which includes reduction in bone density, muscle strength, and circulatory system capacity. While a cosmonaut on-board the Mir was able to walk upon return to Earth after thirteen months in a weightless environment, after a prolonged stay on Mars, the human body will not be able to adjust to the higher gravity of Earth upon return.

By assuming human astronauts are permanent residents on Mars, the challenges are reduced to providing the astronauts with the foundations for a new life: safe living facilities, clean air and potable water, food rations until plants may be grown in green houses and hydroponic facilities, and the essentials for intellectual stimulation on a planet which is cold, desolate, and without many life giving qualities.
If you sign up, there is a chance you wont be coming back to earth at all. Once you are a martian, you stay a martian.

Edit: As for the OT: I already have my application in~ To the mo...er...mars!
Yup, and I can gaurantee you that with few people in a confined space on another planet with nothing to do WILL all be humping like crazy to pass the time.
 

Tiger Sora

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Aug 23, 2008
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I still think, why Mars. Why not the moon. You know, try camping before you go to live in the wild full time.
 

Parakeettheprawn

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Apr 6, 2013
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Tiger Sora said:
I still think, why Mars. Why not the moon. You know, try camping before you go to live in the wild full time.
Because then all the reality TV stars we're going to stick on the rocket could potentially build a ladder made of BS to get back home. If they're as far away as Mars, we'll be free!