Mars One's certain-death space jolly shortlists 1,000 wannabe explorers

Fuck the ratings

I'd love to go - if I thought they'd take me. Captain Scarlet - are you serious or totally devoid of imagination?

Mad bastards maybe but trolls never. Some of us have dreamt of this since Gagarin shat his suit.

Big Brother Mars

At least the weekly evictions should be interesting...

Medical Officer. *Chief* Medical Officer.

"The next stages in the selection process will include rigorous simulations and physical and emotional testing of the candidates, according to Norbert Kraft, the foundation's chief medical officer and homeopath, who requested that we address him as 'Bones'."

In a heart beat

I would go but not with three wannabe spacehyped BigBrother celebs.

The size of the projected craft at 5 metres diameter is laughable given the problems with radiation shielding and the total volume will in no way provide for enough tools and materiel to enable them to survive for any appreciable length of time There are also the problems of prolonged weightlesness not only on the muscles but on the bones. There are exercises designed to help mitigate those problems but ultimately the crew are going to be permanently on a planet with only 38% of Earth's gravity there must be means to simulate 1G in order to maintain normal body function. Admittedly the gravitational strain in general will be less but there is still the question of moving mass when constructing or working which will still have the same inertia.

I probably won't live to see most of the problems addressed but if they were I would without a doubt be up for it.

Still for the Mars 1 crew at least they will go down in history just not too sure what as.

I guess being famous, even if it is for being a twat is too difficult to pass over for some people.

Sense of adventure, sense of reality

"Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success. —Ernest Shackleton."

Shackleton was honest and had a sense of reality. For this program, neither the organizers nor the hopeful participants have any sense of reality.

"People wanted for fatal journey. No wages. Bitter cold. Long months of complete boredom. Constant danger. No safe return. Honour and recognition as a footnote in television history in case of non-fatal landing."

I'm guessing that we should wait to launch humans to Mars after we've built a decent space elevator.

Make it compulsary.

I can think of a few names that really ought to go........David Cameron and Theresa May to name but two.

This got me thinking

" ... the foundation hasn't managed to ..."

Maybe the Second Foundation will do things better. I hope so.

Become Human Ambassadors on Mars...

Eh..

Does this mean there are Mars people with whom we need to be ambassadorial?

Quibble

> the fact that no-one knows how to get people to Mars without killing them long before they get there. No spacecraft currently exists that could do the job and many of the technologies needed, like a way to sufficiently block space radiation

That is not true. The radiation from a round trip to Mars trip would be about equal to the lifetime radiation exposure allowed for NASA's astronauts, ie that astronaut would not be allowed to fly any more space missions -- but would still be completely survivable (I can't remember if that exposure translates to a 1% or a 5% increase in lifetime cancer risk).

A one-way trip would of course get half of that. See e.g. this article.

If, however, the astronauts were unlucky and there was a major solar eruption during their flight, THEN they might get lethal radiation levels, unless the ship had an shielded "safe room" they could hide in.

(EDIT: I've now checked, and the radiation exposure is a little less than half of that which is estimated to increase lifetime cancer risk by 5%.)

Line the walls of the starcraft with living organisms! This will protect them from the great Pain of Space, and the Habermen can be euthanized, and Scanners will not live in vain.

Christopher Columbus

I often think that Nasa go over the top about everything, if Christopher Columbus was to build all his ships in clean rooms at 10 times the cost he would of never have made it to America. Its time humans stopped being such wingers and get their asses into space, there is plenty of good technology out there to stop radiation.

Write-In

when it comes to the public vote, are we allowed a write-in ballot to nominate people for a one-way trip to Mars?

Message from our sponsor: Erm, there all dead

Theres no way they are going to raise enough money for all the mars infrastructure even if they manage to scrape together enough for a spacecraft to transport the ill prepared, narccisistic numpties to the planets surface.

For starters they would need a small reactor for reliable power (good luck sourcing that and getting permission to launch it), excavation equipment to create a radiation hardened shelter and many, many tons of building materials, life support systems and means of getting about on the surface. That equates to a shitload of launches, carrying mostly untested equipment, all succesfully landing on target intact (i think half of all mars missions have failed in some way thus far).

Na, this is a scam, they cant do it in the timeframe with the budget they have. The supply launches alone would cost millions each time, and how long will it be before tv viewers get bored watching hipster astronauts doing mundane tasks day after day?

Mind you, it would be amusing if they started dying or fighting each other, better than Crossroads that would be....

600,000 people supposedly have already visited or live on Mars

According to Andrew Basiago, he claims that the CIA hired him and other teenagers (even Barack Obama when he was a teenager) to teleport to Mars when he was a teenager. When he arrived (he says), Mars was warm enough to walk around on with a T-shirt. Plus, there are ravenous creatures wandering around on the surface (he says).

He also claims that up to 600,000 people have either visited Mars or currently live there (I suppose under the surface), using the CIA's teleporting technology, which they created using the research of Nikola Tesla (confiscated by the US government after his death).

Now I'm not claiming that any of this is true, so don't go saying that I'm nuts, but I think in the context of this article, it doesn't hurt to mention that this is out there.

Interestingly, there are several different people today who confirm seeing Obama on Mars as a teenager, who were also in the same CIA program. Take it or leave it, I don't care.

All this stuff can be found on Google and youtube.

Sponsorship and radiation solution in one...

A 300 metre long Mars bar, the chocolate layer alone being 10 metres thick. That should sort out the radiation, and it will be the sugary snack industry's chance to finally invest in interplanetary advertising.

Astronauts could survive by gnawing through the soft filling, possible even once the their teeth have dropped out.

The landing would require those remaining astronauts to move to the rear (assuming they could move at all after 6 months eating Mars bar filling) so that the sugary spaceship could splat safely into the red planet, the caramel layer absorbing the impact.

I see no technical problems at all.

There is no pot on Mars. Count me out.

Ambassadorial Train Wreck

"However, the challenge with 200,000 applicants is separating those who we feel are physically and mentally adept to become human ambassadors on Mars from those who are obviously taking the mission much less seriously."

Hint: Anyone willing to enlist in this program lacks the mental competence and psychological stability needed to actually accomplish the mission.

On the other hand, having such people as astronauts will insure that the mission will quickly degenerate into a headline-hogging, attention-grabbing, ratings-topping train wreck - if you will permit me to mix metaphors.

it's sad

to see humans so hopelessly gullible, given that this scam hasn't been buried soon after it was announced.

I'm calling it now...

The entire thing is going to be a Big Brother like "trick" and not a real flight. They'll choose the 2-8 most likely "to fall for it", and spin an elaborate mission, which ends up in a lab somewhere where they film people and then give the the surprise "your home" at the end.

The ultimate candid camera?

Re. radiation

MgB2 at cryogenic temperatures works fine.

If you want to get technical an outer MgB2 shield and an inner Y123, with 2" water on the crew facing side would work just fine and block between 70 and 95% of the dangerous multi DNA strand breaking high energy gammas.

In the words of Arnie, "Get your arse to Mars" already.

Also relevant, if they gave BTEDan 50B$ already and asked him nicely to have it ready for the 2018 launch window.. :-)

What it will take?

Is this some kind of rocket surgery trick question?

Massive amounts of money, of course! Just for the studies and testing, mind you.

Ah showbiz. Gotta love it.

All of the technologies already exist. The author of this post just hasn't done research. For example, one of the best insulators against radiation is water. A few feet of water will get you to Mars. That is why MarsOne is working with Bigelow aerospace to use their modules as part of the transport system. One of these modules is due to be installed on the ISS in coming years.

A family and type 2 from years of coke related pancreas abuse stopped me.

If I was healthy and had no family I would have applied in a heartbeat