MARS ONE project --- (Part 1)

A project called MARS ONE kicked off a mission in June 2012 to build the first human settlement on Planet Mars.

In this post, I will assume that technology will evolve far enough to logistically support a MARS ONE venture, and look at its business model ... and why we should support this project.


The private spaceflight project led by Dutch entrepreneur, Das Lansdorp, plans to land 4 people on Mars in 2023, and send 4 more every 2 years thereafter.

In 2009, NASA scrapped its plans for a manned MARS mission because the cost of sending a crew there and back, and sustaining them while there was projected to be $100 billion!

The cost was considered to be an unsustainable luxury.

So, how can MARS ONE boldly go where NASA couldn't afford to?

Here are the highlights of MARS ONE business model:

MARS ONE is expected to cost $6 billion.

And rather than relying on elusive government funding as NASA did, a key component of MARS ONE is a Reality TV show with an audience vote that determines which applicants will get the YES vote

Once the candidates are selected, they will become celebrities.

Their training, flight and new lives on MARS will all be documented - and generate premium ad revenues.

Within 2 weeks, they received 78,000 applicants from 120 nations, making it the most applied-for job in history.

What do I think of this project?

It's certainly thought provoking.
I believe that it is something we should do in these times of economic crises and war, this can be something positive ... something uplifting ... something that the whole world can support together.
Let's go Mars!


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Colonizing Mars: Q&A with Mars One Chief Bas Lansdorp

What is the biggest challenge Mars One will have to overcome to be successful?

Lansdorp: A human mission to Mars is one of the most ambitious projects that one could imagine. Three major challenges. In the short term: financing the funding gap between expenditures on the hardware and revenues from the the media event. In the medium term: successfully passing through phases where things do not go as planned — which there will be in a project of this magnitude.

In the long term: finding and training a crew that can successfully perform the first three years of the mission, between departure on Earth and the landing of the second crew.