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A Mars One Finalist Speaks Out On the "Dangerously Flawed" Project
superboj writes Dr Joseph Roche is one of the finalists to go on Mars One's much-hyped mission to the Red Planet. And yet he says he's never had an in-person interview, had to organize his own physical exam, was only tested on prepared questions, and is being encouraged to give more and more money to the group. That's why he's decided to quit.
I, and many others, have been saying this was a scam from the start. It's not "dangerously flawed", because there will be no voyage. They're just preying on dreamers.
Most people who follow space stuff already know that Mars One is either a scam or simply delusional... although I suppose it's nice that other people are starting to notice this too.
With the timeframe and technical aspects of the project I'm guessing its either a pyramid scam or the best pitch for a survivor sequel ever. Only without the happy outcome of the original series.
He should be used to having very little money and working his ass off for someone else's hunches.
The only danger will be to someone's bank account. Anyone who couldn't tell this was a scam almost deserves to be separated from their money as a sort of fiscal Darwin award. There is not and never will be an actual mission to anywhere though this scam. Furthermore I'm tired of hearing about it and don't know why slashdot continues to give these scammers free publicity.
I wish an attorney general with appropriate jurisdiction would get involved and put the people behind this in jail.
It's already part of EMACS. Scientists just have not yet discovered the sequence of keystrokes to enter that mode.
Mars one is a not-for-profit not-for-profit organizations may include a membership roster which does directly benefit from the income of the organization. its basically a way charities distance themselves from lawsuits or legal repercussions of outright greed in the face of a noble goal or humanitarian ideal.
its been known for quite some time that Mars One is the equivalent of Kony 2012. The goal is great, but the project is a heel dragging competition to see how long investors and C-levels can jiggle a hotdog in front of a hungry public before disappearing into obscurity with close to a million in cash so far.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Most people who follow space stuff already know that Mars One is either a scam or simply delusional... although I suppose it's nice that other people are starting to notice this too.
I think it's important that a possible change of heart internally is seen by any of the other members. A lot of time when I read about instances where people get sucked into, say, a Nigerian money scam or worse Scientology, it often becomes a serious issues because they were first tricked into giving a little bit of money and then a little more until it's a sizable sum in total. At that point it's very hard to get out because you're mentally holding yourself prisoner there with the logic that if you quit now, you've lost that investment and you're going to look like an idiot. But, through inaction, you maintain the outward appearance of knowing what you are doing and your investment is still good -- hell, it's even growing because they need another small to medium sized payment. And down down down you go into the trap. It takes a lot to not chase your bets and to say, "I fucked up by giving them the $99 applicant fee but better quit now than waste anymore time and resources. Lesson learned."
... because without that your decision only has one option and it's the wrong option.
And I think the fact that a DOCTOR (no matter what kind or what validity) says, "I paid the money, I saw they were preparing me for the biggest snuff film ever and I got out." Well, now the average person involved in this project can say, "He is right, I came to the same realization, I'm no stupider than this academic." This is why there are support groups out there for gambling problems and cults escapees. The ideafication of your exit is sometimes important than your ability to make your own decision
My work here is dung.
The whole project is a money-grabbing scam. Nobody's going to Mars. Besides, when the Apollo astronauts first went to the moon aliens were right there, and after a few missions to the moon (by Apollo 17) the aliens finally said enough is enough..No more humans on the moon or anywhere else beyond Earth orbit. So nobody is going to the moon, Mars or anywhere else. Only robots are allowed. And probably any robot that starts drilling into or disturbing the life in the oceans of the Jovian and Saturnian moons will be stopped before it can do any damage.
Hey, if you've got yourself a batch of suckers, why stop milking them before they leave? I think that would be a violation of the scammers code or something. Especially if you've got a choice situation where you haven't actually broken any laws while scamming them - all win, no risk.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Is the Mars Society legit? They appear somewhat connected to Mars One, but seem to actually be doing a little bit more, like camping trips in the Arctic to test their... gear?
First crowd sourced funding, now crowd sourced logistics...
I mean how could a trip to another planet possibly go wrong with this kind of strategy?
I'm going to need $50 million dollars to build the landing pad on mars... I plan on deploying a bunch of down pillows... that'll work right?
Also, who would have given these guys money? I mean... if there were REALLY a trip to mars happening that they wanted colonists for... I'd be one of those crazy bastards that would sign up for it. Yes. Send me to mars. I don't want to live on this planet anymore.
No really.
But, why would I give "money" to something that isn't going to happen?
I thought the whole point of this thing was to make it clear that there were a lot of people willing to travel right now to mars? That's a cool message to send. "Hey you earth loving pansies, WE are willing to go... even if we die... even if we can never come back!"
And I thought that was a cool message because it really surprises a lot of people and gets them to think differently about space exploration. I mean, every manned mission assumes a return trip. What if there isn't one. What if its "you go and you spend the rest of your life where ever you arrived... possibly your short life with no food water or air." The thing is that there are volunteers for that.
But to give these bozos actual money? *raises left eye brow spock fashion*
That's illogical.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
I thought they had at least developed their own thruster - the world's first bullshit-powered thruster that can get you to Mars and beyond!
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
The problems involved here are not really within the range of 'fans' to solve, no matter how many you throw at it or how included they are.
first tricked into giving a little bit of money and then a little more until it's a sizable sum in total. At that point it's very hard to get out because you're mentally holding yourself prisoner there with the logic that if you quit now, you've lost that investment and you're going to look like an idiot.
This is commonly referred to as 'throwing good money after bad.' Very common in large business when people keep chasing that TCO that will never be realized due to being scammed into some crap project that should have never been approved, or should not have been approved as designed.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
Reports emerged that the contract with the TV production company Endemol - which Mars One claimed could bring in up to $6 billion in revenue - was no longer in place and that the companies had gone their separate ways.
Interesting that they originally partnered with Endemol, who previously produced this:
'Space Cadets': http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
"The series described itself as the most elaborate hoax perpetrated in television history...A group of twelve contestants (who answered an advert looking for "thrill seekers") were selected to become the first British televised space tourists, including going to Russia to train as cosmonauts at the "Space Tourist Agency of Russia" (STAR) military base, with the series culminating in a group of four embarking on a five-day space mission in low Earth orbit...However, the show was in fact an elaborate practical joke...Unknown to the "space cadets", they were not in Russia at all...and the "space trip" was entirely fake, complete with a wooden "shuttle" and actor "pilots".
In the last episode, I recall the presenter joking that the next series would be called 'Mission to Mars'...
Mars One is most certainly NOT a scam.
Technology has all but eliminated the need for a growing population and over-population is human's biggest problem. We need to eliminate some people, but we still need smart, useful people. If we used criteria like geography, race, religion and ethnic origin to choose who gets eliminated, we're as likely to eliminate too many of the smart people we still need. So what criteria do we use to identify people we want to get rid if?
Mars is a cold, lifeless rock much to far away from earth to make even it's mineral content remotely economical. We are a species who can't even terraform the Gobi, Mohave or Sahara where there's an atmosphere and temperatures are (relative to Mars) reasonable. Anyone who thinks going to mars is anything other than ridiculous meets just the criteria we're looking for. And they'll voluntarily board a ship blasting off to nowhere, somewhat lessening the moral dilemma of the situation. And they're even offering to pay for the whole thing!
Brilliant plan. Or semi-brilliant, because they simply haven't selected nearly enough finalists to address the overpopulation problem. But it's a start.
Didn't Douglas Adam's predict this decades ago?
The concept itself is deeply flawed. If you were a crewmember, would you entrust your safety to fellow crewmembers whose primary qualification is that they are willing to die (i.e. exhibit suicidal tendencies) ? There is a reason NASA carries out extensive psychological testing among its applicants. If you're going to entrust a multi-year multi-multi-billion dollar mission in the hands of a select group of people, you want those people to have strong survival insticts that will push them to do everything possible to overcome adversity to come out alive. You do not want people who are willing to give up on life.
Yeah, I've known a couple of people who've been sucked into pyramid scams. And I mean classic, textbook examples of pyramid scams. In both cases they told me about this amazing new investment opportunity they're taking part in. I listened for a minute and then told them it was a pyramid scam, and they got hostile and defensive. I think they didn't like thinking they could be fooled into something like that. I never did hear how either of these turned out, though neither of the people involved did get to retire a year later as they'd hoped they'd be able to.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
On that note: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/w...
A fool and his hard drive are soon parted.
Here is how I think it went:
Some small company with one or two guys says "Hey, let's do that Mars One thing, where we pretend to send people to Mars, create a lot of media buzz and get rich doing so. There's no real chance we send people away as some Goverment will stop us before we get anywhere serious. And hey, in CASE we are successful... we get even richer and everyone who dies signed up for it on free will. Awesome. Now, we're money greedy bastards with morals. Let's look for a media producer with no morals."
In steps Endemol (media producer with questionable morals but a lot of experience) and says "Hey, uhh, sure. Give it a try, if it turns out to be a buzz, we help you."
They go around, collect some supporters, create media attention, ignore the scientific world that says "Uhh... cool vision, but SERIOUSLY?"
They start, create some buzz. But do not get 200k people but more like 2000. Endemol says "Ok, thanks. Nice try, but go away. But... hey, in case it DOES work out, give us a call. We'll just be silent, burning bridges... why should we? See you (suckers)..."
Now, what do those two (?) immoral guys from the beginning do? They see how much they sqeeze from it as long as they can.
Just check out they profile pictures of the "Top 100 contenders". Does that look professionally made for the "100 handpicked people who went through the rigorous process of evaluation"? No. Mars One consists of the guys in the middle and those top ten contenders who got they can make some money as well as long as this thing runs...
I had suspicions initially that it was an elaborate con, but this pretty much confirms it. The objective here was clearly to grab as much money as possible before the bottom fell out.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
The head of the Mars Society is Robert Zubrin, who is a well qualified and inventive aerospace engineer. I assume the rest of their work at least involves doing the relevant math.
The Mars One project's problem isn't wanting to go to Mars, it's the missing step two in their plan:
(1) Raise around a million dollars from crowdsourcing, tee shirt sales, and application fees
(2) ???
(3) Finish $6 billion worth of space hardware and launch it.
Elon Musk/SpaceX also want to go to Mars, but they have actual rockets and customers, and his other businesses (Tesla and Solar City) both stand to make a lot of money, and are useful to the original goal. You will need electric rovers, batteries for power storage, and solar panels on Mars. It helps if you have companies that already make that stuff. So I rate the SpaceX Mars program way higher on the probability scale.
Old Scam. - This offering is for "Sophisticated Investors" only. You should read this phrase as "Run Away Quickly", but a lot of people like to think they are smarter and more capable than they really are, and are sucked in. "Hell Yes I'm sufistikated, lets see what you got."
None of them can see the clouds; The polished wings don't care.
One-way missions have been a common feature of human exploration. In the nineteenth century, thousands of people signed up to settle California as a one way mission, with no idea of what awaited them. "California" in those days did mean what it means now; the settlers had to grow their own milk and honey, many died of miscellaneous causes, and a few ended up as the Donner Party.
If this account is to be believed, the problem with Mars One is lack of control over the mission by those who signed up. If this projectis going to attract participants, it needs to be open about allowing those who sign up exchange information freely. If it hides information and gets coercive about financial contributions, it could be regarded as a cult. And if you're going to Mars, you wouldn't want your traveling companions to be members of a cult.
n/t
Please send me their contact information!
My SIG is a P226
This is commonly referred to as 'throwing good money after bad.'
This is more tersely called sunk cost fallacy
Yep a non-profit organization, the organisation itself doesn't make any profits, but the people in the organization get a hefty salary for doing nothing... It happens with a lot of non-profit organisations, a lot of money is going into the pockets of the ones who are in charge, and instead of profit, all extra's are going into the pockets in the form of a bonus or expense account, so no profit is made by the organisation..
Old Scam. - This offering is for "Sophisticated Investors" only. You should read this phrase as "Run Away Quickly", but a lot of people like to think they are smarter and more capable than they really are, and are sucked in. "Hell Yes I'm sufistikated, lets see what you got."
You may be on to something there - it worked the same way for bitcoins - "Only smart people who can understand the math can see why BTC are a good idea. Can you see?"...
I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.