Mars One Narrows Applicant Pool to 758 Potential Colonists

[Vivi22]

Colonization of the Oceans is actually rather brilliant, if done right. Hell, the ocean as a whole should be something we aim to explore more of in the coming years/decade or two rather than space travel. We've got issues here on earth that need fixing before we start looking at even LESS hospitable places to go live on.

Nothing like a false dichotomy to take a conversation in a silly direction. The idea that ocean and space exploration are mutually exclusive is silly at face value. And the idea that exploring the oceans is more important to human survival than the eventual colonization of other planets and expansion to other star systems is equally as silly. If we stay on Earth, we will go extinct. If we spread out, our species and our civilization will long outlive our planet. Not to say that learning how to build ocean habitats isn't a noble goal. It might even lead to methods allowing us to better colonize other planets. But ignoring space travel and colonization all together might as well be the definition of foolish.

 

[evilnancyreagan]

I agree that getting to and living on Mars would be a total bone fest but Vivi22 nailed it, we have to figure out how to live on other planets before our lease on Earth expires and Mars is our first step.

 

[Ninmecu]

Colonization of the Oceans is actually rather brilliant, if done right. Hell, the ocean as a whole should be something we aim to explore more of in the coming years/decade or two rather than space travel. We've got issues here on earth that need fixing before we start looking at even LESS hospitable places to go live on.

Nothing like a false dichotomy to take a conversation in a silly direction. The idea that ocean and space exploration are mutually exclusive is silly at face value. And the idea that exploring the oceans is more important to human survival than the eventual colonization of other planets and expansion to other star systems is equally as silly. If we stay on Earth, we will go extinct. If we spread out, our species and our civilization will long outlive our planet. Not to say that learning how to build ocean habitats isn't a noble goal. It might even lead to methods allowing us to better colonize other planets. But ignoring space travel and colonization all together might as well be the definition of foolish.

The way things work in this world, we generally only look at one and precisely ONE plan of action. We very rarely work with the idea that there are multiple means of dealing with any given situation. You seem to be implying that I believe space travel is not something worthy of working on, I never said such a thing. I'm stating that currently we should look more to earth, we've done more with regards to interplanetary exploration than we have in preparation of our own planet for the long haul, the way things are going we won't even survive here long enough for long distance interplanetary travel to be an option-never mind a reality.

TL;DR space travel would be cool, we ain't there yet, figuring out some more shit on home bast would be a wiser course of action imo.

 

[ScorpionPrince]

While I agree that eventually colonizing other planets is a good idea, there's no harm in researching technology that would help with the colonisation. Can we create a capsule that is essecially it's own circle of life? Can we get lightweight radiation shielding, or a way to use the local materials to build such a shield?

While we're figuring out these questions, there's a chance that a space elevator will become a reality. Once you have a cheap way of transporting goods into orbit, It will be much cheaper to send something extremely heavy like a space colony to mars. So, my advice to Mars One: Do some more research into the essential technology when going there, while waiting for cheaper transportation methods.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator

I read the wiki on space elevators. Fascinating stuff.

 

[Pyrian]

I highly doubt this will ever even happen. Someone will put a stop to it.

Who's going to stop it?

At this point, nobody needs to stop it, since it has approximately 0% of the resources it needs to succeed.

 

[theNater]

I think one of the biggest barriers to visiting mars is the long exposure to deadly radiation on the trip. We don't have an answer for it yet, and it seems to pierce every kind of protective material we've made so far. Before we can pretend to set up a mars colony, we have to get there alive.

Space radiation isn't that deadly. The dosage they'd get would be in the "significantly more likely to eventually die of cancer" range, not the "keel over from radiation poisoning" range.

Unless they set up a farm or something (which also takes a lot of water...) they'd be completely reliant on shipments.

They plan to do that. They don't have to bring all the water with them; there's water ice on mars.

It's nice to see Mars One has narrowed down its applicant field, but what are they doing about the monies?

The plan is that once they get into the training stages, they're going to film it. Then they'll sell broadcast rights to that film. It is yet to been seen whether broadcasters will be willing to spend as much as Mars One hopes.

If for science and exploration, they don't need to colonize it, they just need to go live a few years and collect samples.

Coming back makes that way, way more expensive. Consider just the fuel costs; to get them there and back takes the fuel to get them there, plus the fuel to get them back, plus the fuel to get the fuel to get them back there. It gets prohibitive pretty quickly.

I'm guessing this means it's too late to sign up?

For this batch, yes. They plan to send a group every two years starting in 2024, so there should be an opportunity to sign up to be on a future trip.

All it takes is one thing going wrong... and poof, over 700 people dead.

You realize they're not loading these 758 people into a rocket and firing it towards Mars tomorrow, right? They're gonna pick a few, train them for a decade, then send a batch of four every two years. 700 dead is extremely unlikely, even in the most bizarre of catastrophes.

The way things work in this world, we generally only look at one and precisely ONE plan of action. We very rarely work with the idea that there are multiple means of dealing with any given situation.

Who's we? Humanity tends to break down into groups of various sizes, who each do their own thing. Mars One working on colonizing Mars isn't going to interfere with Earthwatch's activities in any way.

 

[Rawbeard]

I wish I had any skill that would let me in on the action. I just want to get off of this planet.

 

[Gamer87]

I hope they succeed. Pulling something like this off, making humanity an interplanetary species, could unite the rest of us left on Earth seeing what we could accomplish together if we put aside our petty differences.

 

[WWmelb]

Good luck to Mars One i say.

To the commenters here i say read the literature on the program, educate yourself (a few have, but not many) and then come back and comment with an informed opinion.

I've spent too long correcting misconceptions of this program in other threads to do the same here though, but i'll put some points:

ALL tech needed for this mission exists already, any refinements to the tech over the next 10 years is just a bonus.

The solar radiation is already accounted for, while in transit and once landed on mars.

They are planning on setting up self sustaining farms within their living capsules, so the majority of food needed will be grown on site.

New colonists every two years which will also take necessary supplies with them.

Only 4 people go initially, not 700 odd.

 

[Eri]

I realize a lot of people want 'progress' and that they think the future lies in space. Well, I don't agree. I think that until we fix our problems here, we can't just choose to jump ship and think they'll be fixed if we move from one giant rock to another.

In reality, things will never be fixed... we'll never go to the stars, and we'll kill ourselves off.

This is a terrible view to take. The whole reason we need space is to fix many things wrong on Earth. Humanity needs a dream. Space exploration should be that dream.

 

[AuronFtw]

I think one of the biggest barriers to visiting mars is the long exposure to deadly radiation on the trip. We don't have an answer for it yet, and it seems to pierce every kind of protective material we've made so far. Before we can pretend to set up a mars colony, we have to get there alive.

Space radiation isn't that deadly. The dosage they'd get would be in the "significantly more likely to eventually die of cancer" range, not the "keel over from radiation poisoning" range.

You know it's the reason we haven't sent any astronauts over yet, right? It's pretty much guaranteed to get cancer, and a high chance to be outright lethal.

"We're talking about a lot of ionizing radiation, almost a guarantee for cancer, and you are really close to the edge of the range for lethal exposure," said Kristin Shrader-Frechette, a University of Notre Dame professor and a specialist in ethical issues that arise in scientific research and technology development. "If we can't get shorter transit times in space, and we can't get better shielding, then we really can't do (a Mars) spaceflight." (source [http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/22/radiation-exposure-makes-manned-mission-to-mars-unlikely/2847577/])

The only amusing part of that article is the end, where NASA Chief Astronaut Robert Behnken says he can't imagine a line of people signing up for a one-way trip to Mars. In essence, that's what this Mars One thing is all about. If NASA was willing to use cannon fodder test subjects, we'd start making some progress.

 

[theNater]

You know it's the reason we haven't sent any astronauts over yet, right? It's pretty much guaranteed to get cancer, and a high chance to be outright lethal.

That's the round trip. They wouldn't be brushing up against lethal upon reaching Mars, but after they'd been to Mars and were arriving back at Earth.

 

[William Ossiss]

Is this the beginning of starwars? A few thousand years from now earth will be fighting mars for resources, just imagine how cool that would be! somebody might drop an asteroid.

do you mean the red faction games ?

No, no. You mean The Waters of Mars!

Spoiler

I'd have loved to be a part of this. They need someone who knows more than just science and doctoring skills. They need down to >.> 'Earth' good old skills. Just think of how the plants would THRIVE there! They'd need someone who knows how to grow, and can actually put those skills to use.

 

[Crackerjacks]

I was so annoyed by the initial comments in this thread I made an account just so I could argue against them. I'm not sure how the formatting on this place works yet; this will be unacceptably devoid of formatting and bolded words. Soon I will learn how to quote multiple posts, but today is not that day...

1. "This is probably going to fail, so we shouldn't bother."
Since when is the prospect of failure supposed to deter projects like this? The entire space industry is full of risks and failure, but so is every other worthwhile endeavour. If parts of this project failed, we would do what we do with all other failures - learn from them and do better next time. A comparison can be made to the settling of the Americas by the Europeans - and this is highly unlikely to turn into Darien, Panama. (Woo obscure history reference)

2. "What are we going to DO? There's no oil/aliens/sexy ladies/giant welcoming mat on Mars, so we should just not go."
This is silly for several reasons. We don't have to send giant refineries on rocketships to do worthwhile things on Mars. This kind of argument, if turned into policy, would have seen every single space venture denied. I mean... What do we really do on the ISS? I don't see them sending down Morgan Freeman clones.

Successful colonization of Mars would - beyond making us live in a real life science fiction novel - test new technologies and help us refine and adapt them to further space venturing. The logic behind this one is that we're expected to just build the USG Ishumura on our first space venture and just skip all the preceding tech levels. This isn't a pointless venture, it's following the natural progression of things.

3. "Why don't they just colonize the ocean"
We totally should! Write to your local congressmen/minister/supreme leader and tell them to get on that. Did you know that our species isn't a hivemind, and that we can multitask whenever we want? Me either! The things you learn...

4. "Space science is expensive, and this project relies on things that do not even exist yet."
We've been throwing things at Mars for awhile now. We've even thrown a homerun a few times with objects that have left the solar system. The ONLY thing holding back sending the entire population of Scotland up to Mars is the lack of people wanting to fund it... And the prospect of space highlanders vaporizing London.

5. "This is just an excuse for people to leave their spouses"
Uhhh

 

[Callate]

I'm not sure a willingness to leave your spouse back on Earth is the sort of thing I would look favorably on in potential applicants.

"So, how do you feel about permanent, life-long commitments?"

"...Uh..."

 

[ThunderCavalier]

I think my only issue that I have with this is, well, the technology that we have currently seems extremely, extremely impractical for an endeavor like colonizing Mars. I'm all for colonizing planets and exploring space and all that jazz, but... the technology for terraforming on a scale that you'd have to accomplish to make someplace like Mars inhabitable, as well as continually inhabitable (because there will have to be some kind of accommodation for Mars's atmosphere, its distance from the sun, etc. And if the solution was making some kind of large dome or something of that sort, then you have to consider the scale of such an installation, with people that probably don't have prior construction experience, in an atmosphere that we've never had live tests on to see if the structure wouldn't immediately collapse in upon itself. And, again, this has to somehow be able to sustain and produce food by itself, because without any way to achieve Faster Than Light travel (or at least some kind of reasonable travel distance between Earth and Mars), any colonization attempt is going to be woefully destroyed by this little thing called finite supplies.

I mean, good luck to them and I personally hope that we can pull off this colonization, in the future or even right now, but right now this seems like a huge shot in the dark without a lot of forethought. Now, I'm not assuming that I'm smarter than NASA and that they hadn't considered these issues before even making the Mars One mission as popular as it is... but seriously, I don't see this working with the hand we're dealt right now.

 

[Dyan]

I don't really understand all the negativity in this topic.

Why do we often look down on ambitions project like Mars One, when space exploration should be THE NUMBER ONE GOAL OF THE HUMAN RACE? Maybe I'm just an idealist, but when I think about the entire Universe, full of possibilites and see so many saying we shouldn't even attempt exploring because it MIGHT fail, it just perplexes me.

That Neil DeGrasse Tyson video someone posted is spot on. We need to start dreaming again.

 

[BloodRed Pixel]

758 suicide candidates, because that's what this mission is about in the end and they won't go down in history like Shepards Sucide Mission - even it it's For Science(TM)...


PS: and unless we develop FTL/ Wrap Tech we won't go anywhere in this universe, you can dream as much about it as you want...

 

[Qizx]

I'm not sure a willingness to leave your spouse back on Earth is the sort of thing I would look favorably on in potential applicants.

"So, how do you feel about permanent, life-long commitments?"

"...Uh..."

This got a good chuckle out of me. I wonder how the spouses will feel about it when this inevitably doesn't get off the ground?

To the other things, I think it's an awesome idea to try and colonize mars/other planets however I don't think our science IS that good, I'll leave that up to the experts though.

 

[theNater]

And if the solution was making some kind of large dome or something of that sort, then you have to consider the scale of such an installation, with people that probably don't have prior construction experience, in an atmosphere that we've never had live tests on to see if the structure wouldn't immediately collapse in upon itself.

Multiple small domes. Easier to put up, more structurally sound, and if one dome breaks, everybody can move to the others.

And, again, this has to somehow be able to sustain and produce food by itself...

Hydroponic farming.

Now, I'm not assuming that I'm smarter than NASA and that they hadn't considered these issues before even making the Mars One mission as popular as it is...

Mars One is not a NASA mission. It is a separate organization dedicated solely to colonizing Mars.

PS: and unless we develop FTL/ Wrap Tech we won't go anywhere in this universe, you can dream as much about it as you want...

Wrap Tech? Check! [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_wrap] Universe, here we come!