Applications for 2023 Mars Mission Pouring In

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
Joined
May 9, 2000
Messages
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We told you awhile back about the Mars One expedition accepting applications to go on the mission. The response from people around the world to actually wanting to get away from it all (and probably remain on Mars) has been phenomenal to say the least. To date, Mars One has received 80K one-minute videos for the chance to become a corporate astronaut. Registration is open until the end of August and a total of 500K applications are expected.

"Applicants we have received come from a very wide range of personalities, professions and ages. This is significant because what we are looking for is not restricted to a particular background.”
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Hmm let me say, being sorted by both experts and then a American Idol reality like show is not what I call something that would give me confidence about the mission. It's a 6 month trip to get there and it's ONE WAY. The last thing I'd want if I were an applicant was the "public" voting for who would accompany me.
 
Of course only a fraction of these people would actually go if offered the chance. But it always amazes me how interested the public is in science and technology. I found this video of one of the shuttles retiring equally fascinating: Space-shuttle-Endeavours-crosstown-journey-through-L.A. Just look at how many people come out to see the thing get retired! Projects like these inspire and unite people, and we need more of them.
 
Good. The Government has been stonewalling NASA on going to Mars for 40 years now yet it wastes hundreds of billions each year on military research projects and unneeded military firepower that sits in a military graveyard (Hello 3,000 Abrams Tanks?).

As much as I loathe Corporations as a whole , they will be the ones getting us into Space first and probably the ones to pioneer further along since our Government feels its more important to buy 20 F-35's to have at the ready to bomb out terrorists with AK-47's :rolleyes:
 
This is a bloody reality show more than anything, sadly. I'm sorry, if we want to fund a manned mission to Mars, a one-way is simply dramatic and isn't the best way to go about the whole thing. Even the Soviets once were considering one-way missions to the Moon and to Mars for some of the same reasons this incidence is being considered - its difficult/expensive/technologically time consuming to safely send someone to Mars and bring them back, but if we want to have "First Man On Mars" or "First Crew On Mars" to be shot over there one-way and essentially become human-statues without worrying about their wellbeing, well that's just a lot easier.

Sending 4 people, picked by American Idol-style call-in reality show, is not sending a colonizing mission to Mars. There are far, far too many gaps. Hell, even their funding is mostly "Beg aerospace, and see if we can fund it as entertainment and hope the tech will be there+affordable!". Its an abhorrent idea that the glitz and popular star power should convince this nation, hell this world, to launch something as momentous as a mission to another planet and do it in such a vacuous, half-assed manner.

Don't get me wrong, I'd like to see a manned, and even colonizing mission to Mars. This isn't the way to go about it. We have so many opportunities now to make such a mission possible, honing technologies of all kinds to make a successful colonization mission. Why don't we spend time expanding/building new space stations and the construction of spacecraft in space? If we're going to colonize a planetoid, why not go back to the Moon - another barren environment that's a whole hell of a lot closer where we can try out some of the ideas we'll need on Mars? On top of all this, it can't be left up to a non-profit (or worse, at the behest of for-profit entities) that is going to be begging for tech and funding it as a bloody TV show more than anything.

While it initially sounds like a neat idea, it is the worst sort of vacuous tripe to expect people to give their lives to such a horrid idea and dress it as exploration and greatness. I would love to see space exploration come to the forefront of America and ultimately our entire planet, but it needs to happen with a public, non-profit, best-of-the-best-no-compromises-because-it-is-cheaper funding from one or more governments (essentially, an endless checkbook just like the one that sparked our original space program), evolutionary technological upgrades, and a rational set of steps to bring us to a point where a colonial mission to Mars can happen (and is not meant from the start to be one way - hell, if Mars One expects the rovers to build advanced habitation facilities to be ready when the colonists get there, couldn't we send the materials necessary to build several return vehicles there as well, but I digress).

The more I think about the current proposition, the more it angers me, as a long-time admirer of space travel who would much rather see our government spending the money it is dumping into a handful of useless quagmire conflicts to advance space exploration and technological benefits for the good of the public as a whole.
 
Xaeos said:
*WALLOFTEXT*
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While I agree I don't feel bad for anyone that "might" actually get a chance to do this. You have to pay for it somehow and if it were as simply as the expansion of human knowledge than NASA would have already had the funds from the Government. Instead shit like this is being tried. It's not the best possible way , I agree but let's even see what comes of it before we start treating it like "Real World : Mars".

This entire project might end up picking up real scientists from various Mars interest groups instead of taking a long thrill seekers.

I can say it won't be as simple as cramming a bunch of 20 somethings into a rocket and blasting their asses to Mars. I don't even think the Government would even allow them without having extensive training first and approval. The Government can easily deny them the ability to launch (at least in the US , not sure about any other space agency) on our soil if they feel it isn't beating treated seriously.

Right now its all just a crowd type experiment. We'll see if it means jack shit down the line.
 
Call me a skeptic,but I don't really see this going anywhere. And if they actually by some miracle go through with it,it will end very,very,badly.
 
Of course one of them is wearing Mass Effect clothing.
 
I think this whole thing is to see how gullible people are. There is no way they are ready to make mars livable any time soon.

I think it would be cool, but I don't know if I'd actually be willing to go given it's one way.
 
Xaeos said:
This is a bloody reality show more than anything, sadly. I'm sorry, if we want to fund a manned mission to Mars, a one-way is simply dramatic and isn't the best way to go about the whole thing. Even the Soviets once were considering one-way missions to the Moon and to Mars for some of the same reasons this incidence is being considered - its difficult/expensive/technologically time consuming to safely send someone to Mars and bring them back, but if we want to have "First Man On Mars" or "First Crew On Mars" to be shot over there one-way and essentially become human-statues without worrying about their wellbeing, well that's just a lot easier.

Sending 4 people, picked by American Idol-style call-in reality show, is not sending a colonizing mission to Mars. There are far, far too many gaps. Hell, even their funding is mostly "Beg aerospace, and see if we can fund it as entertainment and hope the tech will be there+affordable!". Its an abhorrent idea that the glitz and popular star power should convince this nation, hell this world, to launch something as momentous as a mission to another planet and do it in such a vacuous, half-assed manner.

Don't get me wrong, I'd like to see a manned, and even colonizing mission to Mars. This isn't the way to go about it. We have so many opportunities now to make such a mission possible, honing technologies of all kinds to make a successful colonization mission. Why don't we spend time expanding/building new space stations and the construction of spacecraft in space? If we're going to colonize a planetoid, why not go back to the Moon - another barren environment that's a whole hell of a lot closer where we can try out some of the ideas we'll need on Mars? On top of all this, it can't be left up to a non-profit (or worse, at the behest of for-profit entities) that is going to be begging for tech and funding it as a bloody TV show more than anything.

While it initially sounds like a neat idea, it is the worst sort of vacuous tripe to expect people to give their lives to such a horrid idea and dress it as exploration and greatness. I would love to see space exploration come to the forefront of America and ultimately our entire planet, but it needs to happen with a public, non-profit, best-of-the-best-no-compromises-because-it-is-cheaper funding from one or more governments (essentially, an endless checkbook just like the one that sparked our original space program), evolutionary technological upgrades, and a rational set of steps to bring us to a point where a colonial mission to Mars can happen (and is not meant from the start to be one way - hell, if Mars One expects the rovers to build advanced habitation facilities to be ready when the colonists get there, couldn't we send the materials necessary to build several return vehicles there as well, but I digress).

The more I think about the current proposition, the more it angers me, as a long-time admirer of space travel who would much rather see our government spending the money it is dumping into a handful of useless quagmire conflicts to advance space exploration and technological benefits for the good of the public as a whole.
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That's pretty much dead-on.
 
I think whomever came up with idea knows very little about the difficult problems the Apollo program overcame. I don't think you can just "hope the tech will be there." Someone has to build it. Also, asking for four individuals to essentially volunteer to kill themselves on TV doesn't seem like the right way to go about it.

Though this recent news gives me a warm, fuzzy romantic nostalgia. I just hope it's design that wins
(unless something is much better, but I don't think there will be one.)
http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/04/how-nasa-brought-the-monstrous-f-1-moon-rocket-back-to-life/
http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/04/new-f-1b-rocket-engine-upgrades-apollo-era-deisgn-with-1-8m-lbs-of-thrust/
 
Sometimes you need a bit of perspective...

Anyone want to spend the rest of their lives in a Biosphere in the middle of a desert on Earth? You try to survive on what you can find in the desert to survive on, and what you can grow for yourself.

Oh, and barely any internet. Very long lag time response.

Need a hospital? Well, tough luck.

Any takers?
 
i love science and the idea of going to mars, but i hope a wormhole opens and they end up in the delta quadrant. they would turn the borg so stupid upon assimilation that the borg would go extinct and pose no threat in 300 years.
 
TysonM said:
Sometimes you need a bit of perspective...

Anyone want to spend the rest of their lives in a Biosphere in the middle of a desert on Earth? You try to survive on what you can find in the desert to survive on, and what you can grow for yourself.

Oh, and barely any internet. Very long lag time response.

Need a hospital? Well, tough luck.

Any takers?
Click to expand...

Pretty much. If anything for the first couple hundred years life on mars would be nothing but hard labor work. Building solar panels from very basic materials that were sent from earth, mining to see what materials are available, building additions to the biosphere in insane conditions, and your survival depending on every single step of that.

I rather do stuff like that in a game like minecraft where I can turn it off anytime and go do something else. :p Hmm, a mars survival game would be kind of cool now that I think about it... :D
 
michael.pa2 said:
Call me a skeptic,but I don't really see this going anywhere. And if they actually by some miracle go through with it,it will end very,very,badly.
Click to expand...

I don't have very high expectations for this project either.
 
michael.pa2 said:
Call me a skeptic,but I don't really see this going anywhere. And if they actually by some miracle go through with it,it will end very,very,badly.
Click to expand...

Anyone with half a brain should be able to look at their schedule and say this isn't happening. The first supply mission (a Dragon-capsule sized lander) and com satellite is scheduled for 2016... Nobody has ever landed anything that big on Mars. It's definitely not happening in three years. They'd need a Falcon 9 Heavy-lift rocket, Earth Departure Stage, and the supply capsule + landing hardware. They haven't even started development.

If they were talking about doing this on the Moon with SpaceX hardware in the 2020s I could buy it. That would be awesome. A Mars colony funded by a reality TV show is not happening.
 
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