Can’t we just populate Mars the same way we populated Australia back in the day?
4 Likes
Planet’s full. Go Home.
5 Likes
Can’t we send some Kardashians or something?
The Real Housewives of Olympus Mons?
3 Likes
I’d go, but… no… wait…
I’d just go. How do I get in on this?
3 Likes
The first cargo launch is scheduled for 2022. There is no way in hell they are going to completely solve the self-sustaining habitat problem in seven years.
I’m with Roger Strong. These people are either scammers or dangerously naive. the best possible case is that their timetable gets pushed back by years.
This is the extra scary part. Reality TV is made of manufactured drama. Let’s stick a bunch of people in a tin can, on the knife’s edge of survival, far from any hope of rescue, and then try to make them fight.
5 Likes
I vaguely remember that in some science fiction I read when I was in elementary school, there would be complaints about how overcautious NASA was. In particular, one novel I read, about some alien invasion, repeated a rant a couple of times about how they could build entire spacecraft capable of reaching orbit with the resources NASA spent on zero-gee toilets for the Space Shuttles. And of course, at the end, the Good Guys defeat the alien invaders by building a fleet of cheap spaceships, without zero-gee toilets, and blowing up the alien mothership.
The book sticks out in my mind for two reasons: first, it was especially emphatic about this point, and second, because I finished reading it shortly before the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion. So much for NASA’s excessive caution.
In retrospect, it’s easy to see that as a facet of neo-liberalism: the constant insistence that we need to strip out all the safety equipment. So, if this insane plan goes anywhere beyond being laughed at, I’d start to worry. What would it suggest about our future if our ideal is to throw people at near certain death on the mere possibility of minor success?
6 Likes
Not all, just the ass-covering two thirds and use half of the saved resources where they could actually do some good. Net gain.
I’ll open a bottle of something good.
Depends on what’s “near certain”. For some it can be as little as 10% chance of failure, others put this on 90%. Besides, in long term, the probability of death is 100% anyway.
Manhattan Project. How many months from discovery of fission to a functioning prototype, again? While making up the physics itself in runtime?
We wimped out since then. Softened to next to uselessness.
2 Likes
Drilling for water really isn’t the same as fracking. It’s actually quite old technology, here’s an example you may have seen or heard of before:
Of course, the frozen aspect of Mars’ water supply will mean the bucket and rope aspect will need to be a bit higher tech.
5 Likes
This. Won’t. Happen.
Have you seen interviews with the idea’s creator? It’s a pipe dream that won’t get funded. He vastly underestimates the cost of space travel and he vastly overestimates the advertising revenues / distribution deals they’ll receive.
3 Likes
The Manhattan Project was the result of (probably, at the time) the wealthiest country on Earth writing a blank check and saying “make this happen at any cost.” It ultimately cost more than 30 billion dollars, adjusted for inflation.
Mars One is a publicly funded non-profit. Their projected budget for the first launch alone is $6 billion, of which they have currently raised less than one percent of one percent.
Mars in eight years is probably not impossible as a hypothetical human achievement, but I don’t see where these guys have any of the resources needed to make it happen in the timescale they’re talking about.
3 Likes
I am unconvinced you drink beer 
2 Likes
Awesome. Have sex before you launch, and after the voyage, you and your baby will be able to explore a new world. Together.
1 Like
Well, the same principle goes for mimosas.
Best just to stick to martinis for the zero-G portion of the voyage. When you’re in interplanetary space nobody can tell you it isn’t after five o’-clock.
3 Likes
Of course, but if you haven’t noticed most of the work being done to get humans on Mars is being done by private industries. Guess what happens if they find something of value. As it is, they will own the people who get there and set up base camp.
Nah you just Sky Crane 'em, right? All they have to do is slow dow to 100m/s from 578m/s in 16 seconds. No biggie, right? 
According to here, it is just some lousy 3 g. No biggie, right.
get a room you two
and perhaps some lube
2 Likes
Who cares if you’re the people on camera? It’s not like you’ll ever encounter any of the people watching.
3 Likes
Joints, too.
On a related note, I used to see the box for I’ll Bidone and think it was an Italian version of the above.
With a pre-existing aboriginal population?
Are you thinking of Tharks?
4 Likes
For the record, I didn’t even volunteer to die here on Earth.
15 Likes
