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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.”

42 of 233 comments (clear)

  1. Why do people still believe this project is legit? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Have they ever put out a viable plan to reach Mars? Why are we re-printing this crap?

  2. Sigh... Yet another scam by sjbe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I know the idea of going to Mars is pretty awesome but this just reeks of scam. They are claiming they will launch the first people by 2024, a mere 9 years from now. You will note that except for a Donate link there is no mention of funding. They even say "No new technology developments are required to establish a human settlement on Mars", which is demonstrably false.

    Why is slashdot giving scammers like this the time of day? This is not a real mission to Mars. This is not even a credible attempt at one. There is no funding, no realistic plan, no details, no technology development, and nothing else that should even give the slightest hint that this is anything more than a scam.

    1. Re:Sigh... Yet another scam by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 2

      You will note that except for a Donate link there is no mention of funding.

      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.

      --
      Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
    2. Re:Sigh... Yet another scam by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 2

      You cannot demonstrate that; you can only conjecture it.

    3. Re:Sigh... Yet another scam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      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.

    4. Re:Sigh... Yet another scam by Penguinisto · · Score: 4, Informative

      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.

      I think they mentioned this as their main source of funding...

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    5. Re:Sigh... Yet another scam by sjbe · · Score: 2

      I supposed they can claim this on a semantic technicality; since no one has done it before either succeeding or failing with current technology, you can't really say it has been demostrated to be false.

      Only if we ignore a whole bunch of well established physics and biology. We're hardly ignorant of the technical problems involved and we know for a fact that we haven't conquered several showstoppers including radiation shielding on the trip there.

    6. Re:Sigh... Yet another scam by itzly · · Score: 2

      Total lack of a viable landing sequence is another. Anything that requires dropping a human on Mars without instantly killing him, and leaving him with enough supplies to last a while, would require a much more massive craft than anything we have landed on Mars before.

    7. Re:Sigh... Yet another scam by sjbe · · Score: 4, Informative

      You cannot demonstrate that; you can only conjecture it.

      Are you seriously that clueless? This is either a scam or some profoundly wishful thinking. Given that it has all the trappings of a scam I'm strongly favoring that hypothesis. This "organization" is doing EXACTLY what I would expect from someone who is trying to bilk the ignorant and credulous out of some money.

      Lets see:
      1) Desirable goal? Check
      2) Vaguely worded by reassuring sounding assurances that it will work? Check
      3) No clear funding model but asks for donations? Check
      4) Lots of press releases but no technology development? Check
      5) No credible management team? Check
      6) Claims that defy known physics and claim technological advancements to be unnecessary? Check
      7) Claims of interest from well known companies but no actual details? Check
      8) Claims that they have "visited" various well known aerospace firms without further details? Check

      Seriously if you believe ANY of this Mars-One scam then you are a weapons grade imbecile.

    8. Re:Sigh... Yet another scam by Jeremi · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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.
    9. Re:Sigh... Yet another scam by g0bshiTe · · Score: 4, Funny

      I don't often explode when I launch to Mars, but when I do I make sure to wear Haynes, they fit like nothing else, even when your junk is strewn across 4 states.

      --
      I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
    10. Re:Sigh... Yet another scam by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 2

      Are you seriously that clueless? This is either a scam or some profoundly wishful thinking.

      The sky is blue, the president is black, and Russia is bombing Ukraine. None of that is relevant, either.

      You cannot demonstrate that no new technology is required to create a colony on Mars. Economic viability, perhaps. Technology? The primary concern is energy; anything from a nuclear power plant to space lasers can handle that. In 1964, we demonstrated an electric helicopter powered by pointing a big microwave dish at and using a rectifier and antenna to convert the microwave beam into an electrical potential; microwave beam power transmission is well-established and proven, but prohibitively expensive.

      We have a sealed habitat up in orbit around the Earth. We can readily build a giant sealed habitation dome on Mars. We use LED lights for high-efficiency electricity-to-plant-mass conversion here at home; orbital solar with microwave beam transmission would power an artificial sun readily. New Zealand is growing chickens at a rate of 1.3fcr, producing 1 pound of chicken meat per 1.3 pounds of chicken feed: you can have meat and grain. Air and water purification technology exist already. Again, it's prohibitively expensive, but technologically reachable.

      You can theorize that the martian atmosphere may provide technological challenges that exceed these things; but the only way to demonstrably prove that we can't do it with current technology is to build a model in a Martian environment. If we have the technology to maintain a terrestrial simulated Martian environment, then we also have the technology to maintain a Martian simulated terrestrial environment; this won't help us to simulate things like solar-orbital power, however, due to atmospheric scattering not present on Mars, and long distances present in the Mars orbit-to-surface path.

      You cannot demonstrably prove that we don't have the technology to maintain an independent Mars colony; you can only theorize.

  3. My Ex by sycodon · · Score: 5, Funny

    I hope she made the final list.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    1. Re:My Ex by dintech · · Score: 2

      Hopefully she is green. Bonus points if she's little. Future martians should be this size and colour.

  4. This whole thing is a disaster waiting to happen by realmolo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

  5. Some of those are married by Cutting_Crew · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:Some of those are married by gstoddart · · Score: 2

      I'd bet most insurance policies will pretty much call this a suicide and be null and void.

      They aren't just going to say "oh, gee, you've chosen to die at either launch, in transit, landing, or on the surface of Mars ... we'll totally pay your policy."

      They're going to basically say "not our damned problem".

      This is a suicide with better PR ... the only variable is which of several terrible ways to die they will actually experience.

      Unless Mars One is taking our special insurance, you're run of the mill policy sure as hell won't cover this as "death by misadventure".

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  6. Reminds me of the B ship by burtosis · · Score: 5, Informative

    Can't help but think of douglas Adams when i read about this venture: These tales of impending doom allowed the Golgafrinchans to rid themselves of an entire useless third of their population. The story was that they would build three Ark ships. Into the A ship would go all the leaders, scientists and other high achievers. The C ship would contain all the people who made things and did things, and the B ark would hold everyone else, such as hairdressers and telephone sanitizers. They sent the B ship off first, but of course the other two-thirds of the population stayed on the planet and lived full, rich and happy lives until they were all wiped out by a virulent disease contracted from a dirty telephone.

    1. Re:Reminds me of the B ship by Errol+backfiring · · Score: 2

      You are not the only one to think of it. Only I would recommend sending the financial sector; that would also solve the funding problem. If that causes the entire planet's destruction by [insert local greedy people here] fighting over the last dollar, so be it.

      --
      Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
  7. Re:This whole thing is a disaster waiting to happe by gstoddart · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And that has always been what baffles me about this ... how is it even legal?

    This isn't a "sign up for something which carries some risk". This is a "you are pretty much 100% guaranteed to die".

    Seriously, WTF ... how is it legal for that??

    This is a corporation/foundation/whatever they are who has NEVER even launched a single thing, has no expertise, no technology, no track record ... and somehow they've gotten thousands of people signing up to die.

    This is completely ridiculous, and more than a little scary ... anybody signing up for this almost can't be in their right mind.

    I'm sure the TV ratings of them all dying on Mars will be awesome, assuming they make it to Mars.

    But the stunning lack of technology, skills, track record, regard for the lives of those who will be sacrificed as a PR stunt ... it just boggles the mind.

    The whole thing defies common sense or belief.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  8. Re:This whole thing is a disaster waiting to happe by itzly · · Score: 2

    I'll be amazed if they ever see the inside of a rocket.

  9. Not Going To Happen by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 4, Insightful

    These people will be collecting Social Security long before any rocket to Mars happens, and if not, NASA or the governments that fund the project, will choose professional astronauts.

    Really, it's a "fun" thought, but simply not realistic.

    --
    If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
  10. Re:202,586 by Penguinisto · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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?
  11. Re:This whole thing is a disaster waiting to happe by bobbied · · Score: 2

    Or the outside of one for that matter....

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  12. Re:This whole thing is a disaster waiting to happe by PhilHibbs · · Score: 5, Informative

    Birth is a death sentence.

  13. I can already see the headline by pr0t0 · · Score: 4, Funny

    When it hits the fan, and it will, you'll almost certainly see this:

    "Mars One, Earthlings Zero"

    --
    I'm sorry, but your opinion seems to be wrong.
  14. Re:This whole thing is a disaster waiting to happe by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

    "you are pretty much 100% guaranteed to die".

    Aren't we all?

  15. Re:202,586 by Penguinisto · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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?
  16. Re:This whole thing is a disaster waiting to happe by rubycodez · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Such words don't apply to this scam, but when the day comesthat people can be sent one-way to mars there is no ethical problem at all. your concerns are groundless. People die all the time exploring, from free climbing to mountain climbing to rafting. Accepted risk by the participants, you have no right to project your cowardly values on them.

  17. Re:This whole thing is a disaster waiting to happe by meta-monkey · · Score: 5, Funny

    Speak for yourself. I plan on living forever. Been going just fine so far.

    --
    We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
  18. This Makes a Good Read by arthurpaliden · · Score: 5, Informative

    An Independent Assessment Of The Technical Feasibility Of The Mars One Mission Plan
    http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&...

  19. Re:202,586 by AnotherBlackHat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Lottery tickets are a rip off.
    Fake Lottery tickets are a scam, even if they are half price.

  20. Re:Calling all sociopaths by itzly · · Score: 2

    Don't worry, they are only scammed out of their money. It will not affect their time of death.

    So, only standard level sociopaths required to lead this project.

  21. Re:202,586 people volunteer to make a snuff film. by itzly · · Score: 2

    That's essentially what it is.

    Not at all. The project leaders will just pocket the money, and disappear. Nothing will ever be launched (or built for that matter), and nobody's going to die of asphyxia. Happy now ?

  22. Re:This whole thing is a disaster waiting to happe by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.
  23. I would advise people to give this a chance. by Simon321 · · Score: 5, Informative

    I would advise people to give this a chance.

    Let me clear up some things about Mars One. It is often claimed that Mars One is a scam and has no scientists, engineers, technology, timetable, suppliers or plan. This is just not true!

    Scientists and Engineers:
    Lansdorp received his Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Twente University in 2003. For five years Lansdorp worked at Delft University of Technology and in 2008 founded Ampyx Power in order to develop a new, viable method of generating wind energy.
    Lansdorp is also a successful entrepreneur. Here is a ted talk about his last company.
    Arno Wielders received his Master of Science in Physics from the Free University of Amsterdam in 1997. He was soon hired by the Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, to work at Dutch Space in the Very Large Telescope Interferometer Delay Line project.
    Gerard 't Hooft, Nobel laureate and Ambassador of Mars One
    Gerardus (Gerard) 't Hooft is a Dutch theoretical physicist and professor at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Received the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physics.
    Norbert Kraft, Chief Medical Officer, Mars One
    Norbert Kraft is an American Medical Doctor with over 17 years of experience in aviation and aerospace research and development as of 2012.[1] His primary area of expertise is developing physiological and psychological countermeasures to combat the negative effects of long-duration spaceflight.[1] He has worked for the Russian Space Agency, the Japanese Space Agency and NASA.[1]
    Grant Anderson, Sr. VP Operations, Chief Engineer and Co-Founder, Paragon Space Development Corporation 28 years of experience in spacecraft systems design, requirements formulation and preliminary and detail hardware design. Founded or help found 5 companies, two of which are still operating.
    Time table: http://mars-one.com/en/mission...
    Suppliers: http://mars-one.com/en/partner...
    Technology they want to use: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...
    They don't plan to develop much of the technology themselves, they're planning to buy it from other companies mostly such as SpaceX. Most of this technology exists already. They have written statements of the companies that they are willing and able to supply these things.

    Price/Funding:
    All they need is the funding, and they plan to get that through broadcasting and sponsor deals. His argument is that the olympics got 6 billion dollars in sponsor deals, so wouldn't a colony/trip to mars get the same? It would certainly help them get funding if people didn't denounce it as soon as they hear the name. The mission is so cheap (6 billion dollars) because it's a one-way trip. Sending people from Mars back to earth is very expensive. Also, they're not a big wasteful government agency.
    The falcon heavy for example costs only $77-135M to launch (2013). Technology has come a long way, this combined with the privatization of space has caused costs to drop significantly.

    Comparison Olympics/Moonlanding:
    http://www.theguardian.com/med...
    According to this the 2008 olympic openings ceremony was watched by 1 billion people. According to wikipedia in 1969 (the world population was only half of what it is now, and people weren't as well connected as they are now) the moon landing had 500 million people watching. So, just imagine, how many people would watch a landing on Mars in 2023.

    Other:
    Not saying they're actually going to be able to pull it off, but there's no evidence that their efforts aren't sincere.
    Here is a press conference that answers most of the questions you may have: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
    I am aware that reddit AMA was badly received and too

  24. Re:This has all the makings of a reality show by Noah+Haders · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I don't understand what benefits will accrue from marooning dozens of people on mars. Will it reinvigorate space exploration to know that we sent out a Jamestown colony?

  25. Re:This has all the makings of a reality show by Penguinisto · · Score: 2

    Interesting comparison, considering that Jamestown eventually did pretty well (yeah, the mass die-off in the beginning sucked, but the end result turned out pretty well, considering that Jamestown was the first English colony in North America...)

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  26. Re:This has all the makings of a reality show by Raseri · · Score: 2

    Strange comparison. After looking at the list of "candidates" (many of whom look an awful lot like those crisis actors that you see whenever there's a false flag operation), I was thinking this would turn out more like Lord of the Flies, but with more rape and murder (going with the pretend-it's-real angle, anyway).

    --
    Writhe your naked ass to the mindless groove.
  27. Re:This has all the makings of a reality show by ganjadude · · Score: 2
    i think the place you were thinking was roanoke.

    The Roanoke Colony, also known as the Lost Colony, established on Roanoke Island, in what is today's Dare County, North Carolina, United States, was a late 16th-century attempt by Queen Elizabeth I to establish a permanent English settlement. The enterprise was originally financed and organized by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who drowned in 1583 during an aborted attempt to colonize St. John's, Newfoundland. Sir Humphrey Gilbert's half-brother, Sir Walter Raleigh, later gained his brother's charter from the Queen and subsequently executed the details of the charter through his delegates Ralph Lane and Richard Grenville, Raleigh's distant cousin.[1] The final group of colonists disappeared during the Anglo-Spanish War, three years after the last shipment of supplies from England. Their disappearance gave rise to the nickname "The Lost Colony." To this day there has been no conclusive evidence as to what happened to the colonists.

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

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  28. Re:202,586 by NitsujTPU · · Score: 2

    A good friend of mine was in the interview process to become an astronaut, and, I have to be honest, I don't think that it hurt her career or her life in any way. She didn't end up an astronaut, but she met a bunch of interesting people, did cool things, and ultimately landed a job at a top university. I doubt she regrets it one bit. If that's what failure looks like, sign me up.

  29. Re:This has all the makings of a reality show by Whiteox · · Score: 2

    I think the appropriate reference here is Golgafrinchan Ark B
    "These tales of impending doom allowed the Golgafrinchans to rid themselves of an entire useless third of their population. The story was that they would build three Ark ships. Into the A ship would go all the leaders, scientists and other high achievers. The C ship would contain all the people who made things and did things, and the B ark would hold everyone else, such as hairdressers and telephone sanitizers. They sent the B ship off first, but of course the other two-thirds of the population stayed on the planet and lived full, rich and happy lives..."

    --
    Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!