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Mars One Finalist Announces That It's All a Scam

iflscience.com

21–26 of 26 posts

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

#21

> Mars One was hoping to generate $6 billion from a reality show. That dollar amount sounds pretty ludicrous. But if you could somehow bootstrap some faith that it was real, I suppose maybe they could generate global viewership that would translate to large revenues. In turn, those revenues could actually be used to fund a real launch. shrug , of course people would only watch in big numbers if you could also supply…

> That dollar amount sounds pretty ludicrous. The UK soccer league makes 2 billion euros per year - assume that this reality show runs for three or four years and you got yourself a big fat bag of money, especially as this would be broadcasted and marketed across the globe (including the US, which have a high population but 0 interest in soccer).

The UK soccer league is the most popular sport in the UK, and has a huge following elsewhere in Europe as well as in South America and Asia. For many of the biggest teams, the majority of their fan-base is outside of the UK. For many people, playing or watching soccer is their primary leisure activity. There are 6-10 premier league games screened each weekend across a variety of channels, not to mention the other leagues (which also have huge followings going down into the 2nd, 3rd and 4th leagues) and the various regional and international competitions that UK teams compete in, as well as the untold hours of soccer-related programming that isn't showing games.

I don't think the comparison with a hypothetical reality TV show is very meaningful.

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

#22

What is their pretend projected launch date for this? When all the experts (outside of Mars One) are saying we're 20 years away minimum (just like with sustainable fusion and personal jet packs), who would sign up today?

Is there a serious expectation that personal jet packs are going to be worn by anyone but particular military personnel and particular field technicians repairing infrastructure?

Maybe for recreational use?

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

My point was, as a potential Mars crew member, who is going to commit to a minimum 20 year flight date without all ready being in a space program?

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

#23
post #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 partn…

Hmm, It is exaggerated... Based on public information - there was a TV production partner (Endemol), but they pulled out last month.

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

#25

> Mars One was hoping to generate $6 billion from a reality show. That dollar amount sounds pretty ludicrous. But if you could somehow bootstrap some faith that it was real, I suppose maybe they could generate global viewership that would translate to large revenues. In turn, those revenues could actually be used to fund a real launch. shrug , of course people would only watch in big numbers if you could also supply…

> That dollar amount sounds pretty ludicrous. The UK soccer league makes 2 billion euros per year - assume that this reality show runs for three or four years and you got yourself a big fat bag of money, especially as this would be broadcasted and marketed across the globe (including the US, which have a high population but 0 interest in soccer).

The people running football clubs use a somewhat more rigorous and selective process to assess the suitability of prospective staff. The clubs began marketing their products to paying audiences in the steam age.

Other than the part where organizations usually spend more than they bring in, I see few similarities.

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