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Mars Society & 1000planets Team Up

Posted by Hemos on from the getting-there dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "According to 1000planets, they are teaming up with the MarsSociety to offer a lottery of sorts for rides into space and ultimately to the Red Planet. Money problems are over. (fyi: the Mars Direct plan which the MarsSociety aims for costs $10 billion spread out across several years for a sustained exploration/developement mission on Mars--a tiny fraction of the current NASA budget) I'm sure many of you have heard of the X-Prize. This is just another great way for human exploration of space to commence."

4 of 8 comments (clear)

  1. WTF? by Perdo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Neither linked site has any news about this. If there is a lottery held by these guys, they don't know about it. makes me think "e-mail scam!!"

    Just send your credit card number to XXX-XXXX to enter yourself in the mars lottery!

    --

    If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.

  2. This sounds fishy to me by redcliffe · · Score: 2

    No details for a start, on either web site. Any such initative would normally be announced at a press conference.

  3. "Gurantee funding"? by Bob_Robertson · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Quinto,

    Consider how quickly the funding for Mir, the Apollo program, the "fleet" of space shuttles, dried up after initial investments.

    The "public sector" has no gurantee of funding what so ever. Programs are picked up or dropped on the whim of a single election cycle.

    Worse yet, that funding depends on coersion in the form of taxes. There is also the opportunity for vast quantities of corruption, the American space shuttle program is a perfect example of that in action.

    If you want "guranteed funding", put the contract in writing. No government will give you such a contract.

    Bob-

    --
    The Ludwig von Mises Institute. The reasoning individuals economics
  4. I doubt it by codexus · · Score: 2

    The Mars Society is a serious organization promoting the exploration of Mars by humans. Although a lot of its members would love to go on Mars, they also know that only people with the right qualifications can do it. It's possible to go on orbit just for fun but that's not possible on Mars and won't be for decades at least.

    The Mars Society might be interested in volunteers for its experiences on Earth like the Arctic base or desert station. You would still need the right qualifications though.

    I'm afraid this article won't do any good for the credibility of the Mars Society. Too bad cause they do some real useful scientific work.

    --
    True warriors use the Klingon Google