Slashdot Mirror
Mars One: Final 100 Candidates Selected
hypnosec writes "The Mars One project has picked the final 100 candidates for the next round of the selection process. Initially, 202,586 people applied and ultimately around 40 will undertake a one-way trip to Mars. “The large cut in candidates is an important step towards finding out who has the right stuff to go to Mars,” said Bas Lansdorp, Co-founder & CEO of Mars One. “These aspiring martians provide the world with a glimpse into who the modern day explorers will be.”
But...I can't decide if that bothers me or not. The sheer *audacity* of this project impresses me. I kind of want to see it happen.
Unfortunately, the mission is basically a death-sentence for the people involved. And not because of the one-way nature of the mission, but because the people behind this don't have a clue. I would be amazed if anybody actually made it to Mars alive. Hell, I'll be amazed if they make it into space alive.
Why would people agree to let their spouse leave knowing that they will never see or speak to them again?? It seems like to me that the emotional and biological factors involved leaving your spouse in this manner and living with that decision can lead to poor decision making and could potentially endanger everyone else.
IMO assuming this isnt some hoax and they really are going to send people there, then its a mission for people who are totally unattached with no kids so that they can focus on staying alive and making the right decisions.
202,586 Idiots scammed out of their money.
This may sound trollish, but they got off cheaper than the average candidate who tries to go the 'work-for-NASA' route. Years of intense study (and student loans) to get the right degrees, years of kissing petty bureaucratic ass**, and an intense lifestyle that would put a physician's internship to shame? Seems that a relatively paltry application fee would be getting off light by comparison.
Not saying that the initial round of applicants were smarter, but TBH if this thing actually goes up, they had better odds of going, and at a far lower cost.
** The common saying among NASA astronaut candidates was "suck up to go up" if that helps explain things.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
Everything is a scam at first. Mars One is the first large project looking to source candidates for a mission to Mars. Elon Musk is looking to establish a full-fledged Mars colony with the first thousand people there by 2020 - 2040. Chances are he's going to look at the Mars One project to source people for that project as they've already done the legwork for the selection process. Everyone seems to look at new things through the eyes of "who's this asshole with this project, what makes him so special" when the only thing that has ever been the case is "someone willing to endure a project with everyone calling it a scam and mocking them until it happens".
TL;DR: You are anti-Human, anti-science and anti-business; you are scum and you don't even have a competing idea let alone the original one so you are noone to talk about feasibility and it is sickening you have +5 Insightful.
Years of intense study (and student loans) to get the right degrees
Yeah, that sucks. You get an engineering degree to go work for NASA, then they don't accept you, and you have to throw it away and go work for McDonalds.
MickeyD's, no. A more likely outcome would be a somewhat moderate salary at some manufacturer, government agency or pharmaceutical corp, or a relatively meager salary at some university. But, consider the result after all the effort and hardships put in.
Let me put it this way: I once had a junior sysadmin who was a former naval aviation officer. He had a degree in engineering, and shot for NASA but didn't make it in. The process burned him out pretty hard, and it took a couple of years for him to recover. He wound up saying 'fuck it' and went into IT, eventually reporting to me, a former USAF enlisted flightline grunt. Take what you will from that...
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
The first 10 volunteers for open heart surgery were told they were going to die. They did it anyway, because they had nothing to lose. 1 out of the next 10 survived. Today? Heart *transplants* are done all the time.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
I wonder how many TV companies would shovel over billions for the rights to broadcast "The Real World"/"Survivor"/"Big Brother" Mars for long term funding.
Let's assume the best-case scenario -- that the entertainment industry is dying to get broadcast rights for the Mars Reality TV show and will pay top dollar to do so.
What constitutes "top dollar" for that industry? i.e. how much could they afford to pay if they really wanted to?
I'm not sure how to answer that, but the biggest TV event I'm aware of is the World Cup, which brought in $4 billion to FIFA last year.
Would $4 billion be enough for a Mars colonization program? According to this article, they'd still be $2 billion short.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.