Would you want to move to Mars?

[Minty]

There's a company that reckons they can establish a colony there by 2023 - ten years time.

"A Dutch company called Mars One began accepting applications just over two weeks ago for volunteers who want to be trained as astronauts.

Departure for the Red Planet is scheduled for 2022, landing seven months later in 2023 - and they will never return [due to the effect on the human body of being out there long term].

'With 78,000 applications in two weeks, this is turning out to be the most desired job in history,' said Bas Lansdorp, co-founder of Mars One. 'These numbers put us right on track for our goal of half a million applicants.'

They have been inundated with applications from all over the globe, and now must start sifting through the files in order to figure out who will be among in the group of candidates who proceed to the reality show round of the competition, where they will be whittled down to an even-smaller group of four finalists.

Anyone 18 or older may apply via video but there is an application fee that ranges depending on the wealth of the applicant's home country - $38 for U.S. applicants.

The money from the application fees will fund the mission [oh yeah?], and given the number that have already applied, they could have raised anywhere between $390,000 and $5,850,000 already.

In the last stage when 24-40 candidates have been fully trained and qualified, the final decision of choosing the first settlers will be decided by an audience vote.[WTF?]

Mars One says it is not necessary to have military training nor experience in flying aircraft nor even a science degree. Candidates must: be at least 18 years of age, 'Have a deep sense of purpose, willingness to build and maintain healthy relationships, the capacity for self-reflection and ability to trust', Candidates will receive a minimum of eight years extensive training while employed by Mars One, any formal education or real-world experience can be an asset, all skills required on Mars will be learned while in training

Former NASA researcher Norbert Kraft, Mars One’s medical director, said: ‘Gone are the days when bravery and the number of hours flying a supersonic jet were the top criteria for selection.

'Now, we are more concerned with how well each astronaut works and lives with the others – and for a lifetime of challenges ahead.’

Mars One aims to raise money to help fund the project through a long-running, global, reality TV show, which will select the first 24 candidates and follow their training.

Viewers would vote for who should be on the first team of four to leave Earth in ten years time. By 2033 the colony would reach 20 settlers."

Anyone else got a million alarm bells ringing over this whole idea?

If you are going to be sending colonists to Mars, surely the only people to be considered are those with practical survival skills (eg. engineering for repair work needing done). A team of four to leave for Mars? Four is far, far too small a number for it to work - all it would take is for any one of them to take ill & that's a quarter of their team down. They don't even appear to know the journey time correctly - NASA have already said it would take a space vehicle on current technology nine months, not seven to reach Mars.

This all looks to me like a Darien type expedition to me, ill-conceived, ill-thought out.

But if if was feasible, would any of you want to go? Not me. Live out the rest of my life on some barran planet inside an air conditioner steel or plastic frame? No fresh air, no birds in the trees? Sounds to me less like the opportunity of a lifetime & more like a punishment!

[Caspin]

I have been following this Mars plan via occasional articles in New Scientist. My first instinct was that people who would volunteer would possibly be those who are either suicidal or have something they wish to escape from on Earth (e.g crimes in their past, mother-in-laws) but perhaps that is uncharitable of me. You would also need to be the sort of person who would seek to be on Big Brother, since your whole life is going to be a reality TV show. They say that they are going to conduct detailed psychological assessments to make sure that the participants (= contestants!) can hack the pressure, but it's difficult to imagine what sort of personality might actually fit the bill!

Personally, I have no interest in going into space. I haven't even got round to leaving Europe!

[Ollie]

I agree, four is too small. I mean wouldn't you want enough people so that at least (true) love is found (as in not forced love) and the first known extra-terrestrial can be made, unless one of the four get inpregnated at the time of departure from earth. Actually wouldn't it be interesting if there is one male, one female, then two infants of the opposite s3x, so the two infants (once old enough) would have no choice but to eventually reproduce with one another.
I mean isn't the point of going to another planet to explore and experiment, so they could experiment and see what it's like having the first know extra terrestrial and see if the child has made any adaptations to the conditions on mars.

[Caspin]

Gosh, you should put forward some of these ideas for experiments, Ollie. It's all sounding so crazy already, the organisers of this trip might actually include them!

[Ollie]

I was in a bit of rush this morning writing that so I'm might just add a little bit more. Anyway I thought we were trying to start colonising outside of earth. earth just one planet and the population of humans is increasing very quickly, overpopulation is becoming an imminent problem for our planet. Not only is it a problem of running out of space but also we will be/are facing problems with the environment. Yeah we could attempt having a ban on the amount of children we can have (didn't they try that in China?) but there are still going to be many illegal children and no matter what the population will continue to grow (maybe slowly, but surely) and we all (well most of us) have the need to reproduce, just as though we have the need to eat, drink, sleep, etc. it's natural and nobody can keep us from doing it.
I believe that we all need to begin in our future, the future of colonisation on other planets. Either that or the government could take the easy way out and use terrorism to bring the population level down and then blame that terrorism on one of the terrorist groups, but that's for another day.

So anyway did you like my speech? I enjoyed writing it and yeah... Cya.

[Caspin]

I expect that the colonisers of Mars will have a relatively low life expectancy. They won't have access to normal health care facilities, there is a good chance of nasty accidents and being in space is likely to have numerous negative effects on their bodies (and minds!). Child birth would be a harrowing experience. In space, no-one can hear you scream puuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuush!

It's true, Ollie, the Earth is catastrophically overpopulated and I expect we'll see the problems this is causing get much worse within our lifetimes. Your scenario reminds me that there was some TV series in which the government used poisons to get the population down by randomly sterilising a large proportion of the people. I can't remember what the series was called - my colleague watched it and told me about it.

I reckon Minty's right and they should send survival experts. Send Ray Mears to Mars! Actually no, he'd be too sensible to go.

[Ollie]

I think that a lot of the applicants don't realise how hard the mission might actually be. I mean for starters its going to take ages to even reach Mars, but then when you get down there you're going to have to set everything up and la-de-da. Not to mention you would have to do it fast, oh and its also a matter of supplies, once you run out its going to take awhile to get some more sent to you. And I can see the company that will be sending them up to Mars going broke, so what happens then? All in all, it would be a terrible experience- plus no internet! :O

[Caspin]

There have been simulations conducted in which a small group of astronauts are locked up together for a couple of years, to see what might happen to people who go on long space trips. It really messed them up. In particular they fell into terrible sleep patterns, leaving them exhausted and lacking in motivation. No matter how irritatingly enthusiastic and perky the contestants might be when initially chosen, by the time they get to Mars they might be little more use than four buckets of jelly. Which may mean that the reality TV show will fail if the contestants are all sleepy and boring.

Anyway, those poor astronauts were pretty screwed up after just a year or two in the simulation chamber. These guys are going ..... forever! I think you really would have to be unhinged to apply.

[Ollie]

Plus, if most of the contestants are 'loners' who screwed up their lives on earth (which is likely, otherwise why would you want to go to mars?), what better way to screw up your life even more than screwing your life up on another planet, again!

[Caspin]

I've been on the look out for more information on this totally insane Mars mission. Yesterday I was reading about how all of the participants will have to be, or become, vegetarians, because of course they can't exactly hunt or farm animals on Mars. Presumably they'll have to find a way to grow an awful lot of vegetables there, because there will be a limit to how much stuff they can take with them and regular deliveries of new supplies (with the trip taking seven or more years) are not something to depend on. I suppose they could grow things hydroponically but what if the crop fails?

I predict that someone will get greedy and eat all of the plants, then they others will turn on him/her and they'll be forced to become cannibals to survive. And we can watch the whole thing on TV!