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Mars One Finalist Announces That It's All a Scam

iflscience.com

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Re: Mars One Finalist Announces That It's All a Scam

#2
Reading on, at first the title feels exaggerated.

However, the end of Elmo Keep's piece on Medium (linked from the article, or at the end of this comment) leaves little room for doubt:

Mars One has almost no money. Mars One has no contracts with private aerospace suppliers who are building technology for future deep-space missions. Mars One has no TV production partner. Mars One has no publicly known investment partnerships with major brands. Mars One has no plans for a training facility where its candidates would prepare themselves. Mars One’s candidates have been vetted by a single person, in a 10-minute Skype interview.

https://medium.com/matter/mars-one-insider-quits-dangerously...

Re: Mars One Finalist Announces That It's All a Scam

#3
Well duh!

Was it not obvious from the outset that (at the very least) it was pie-in-the-sky fantasy thinking?

They came form nowhere, with an idea to run a reality show about sending people to Mars. At this point we're already talking about it needing to be the best-funded TV program (or movie) in history, because not only would the tech to do it be hideously expensive, most of it doesn't even exist yet.

Then, before having secured any of this massive amount of funding, they start inviting applicants?

Not a surprise.

Re: Mars One Finalist Announces That It's All a Scam

#5
At least the whole endeavor has fueled public discussion about Mars exploration, which is valuable in and of itself. There is also some value in exploring Mars-to-stay kinds of missions.

To people interested in this, you can also contact the Mars Society for their Mars analogue studies (Mars Desert Research Station). They take crews every 3 months.

http://mdrs.marssociety.org/

Re: Mars One Finalist Announces That It's All a Scam

#7
post #5

At least the whole endeavor has fueled public discussion about Mars exploration, which is valuable in and of itself. There is also some value in exploring Mars-to-stay kinds of missions. To people interested in this, you can also contact the Mars Society for their Mars analogue studies (Mars Desert Research Station). They take crews every 3 months. http://mdrs.marssociety.org/

At least the whole endeavor has fueled public discussion about Mars exploration, which is valuable in and of itself.

There's also a cost associated with having the most visible discussion of human travel to Mars be a scam.

Re: Mars One Finalist Announces That It's All a Scam

#8
post #5

At least the whole endeavor has fueled public discussion about Mars exploration, which is valuable in and of itself. There is also some value in exploring Mars-to-stay kinds of missions. To people interested in this, you can also contact the Mars Society for their Mars analogue studies (Mars Desert Research Station). They take crews every 3 months. http://mdrs.marssociety.org/

> At least the whole endeavor has fueled public discussion about Mars exploration, which is valuable in and of itself.

The risk is that as the scam collapses publicly, people will become disheartened about Mars exploration, and we'll have another setback.

Re: Mars One Finalist Announces That It's All a Scam

#9
post #3

Well duh! Was it not obvious from the outset that (at the very least) it was pie-in-the-sky fantasy thinking? They came form nowhere, with an idea to run a reality show about sending people to Mars. At this point we're already talking about it needing to be the best-funded TV program (or movie) in history, because not only would the tech to do it be hideously expensive, most of it doesn't even exist yet. Then, before…

Kudos.

Re: Mars One Finalist Announces That It's All a Scam

#10
Does it matter if we're 8 years late?

Yes, yes it does. When you're relying on your mission crew to be at a particular life stage when you are ready to go. When they're suddenly 8 years later with families and commitments, it's going to be a whole different set of decisions.

That's assuming some of your dupes don't waste the best years of their lives waiting for you.

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