Mars One Is a “Money Grab” Where Everyone Loses

https://www.inverse.com/article/42965-mars-one-is-a-money-grab-where-everyone-loses

by xaro • 8 years ago

79 36 8 years ago

blackrock• 8 years ago

Even the Chinese government called Mars One to be a scam [1], and advised their citizens to avoid the organization.

So when you've got China calling you out to be a fraud, then you must definitely be doing something wrong, in order for them to bother issuing a public statement like that.

[1] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/24/chinese_papers_bran...

fastball• 8 years ago

What sense does that make?

Or, China could feel threatened by the project because they want to get to Mars first?

zingmars• 8 years ago

EVEN the Chinese government? You say that like they're in business of scamming people. And honestly reading the original Chinese articles it doesn't look like an official government position or anything. It's just a newspaper that happens to be owned by the ruling party posting an article on things happening in the west.

RobertRoberts• 8 years ago

I would suppose the commenter was referring to the fact that most of the business scams based on fake products (that us normal everyday people would be directly affected by) come from China.

And since the Chinese government has large stakes or outright ownership of those businesses, they are culpable in massive worldwide product scams. (I really don't think I need to link the news articles for this it's so pervasive).

jdpigeon• 8 years ago

Funny enough, when Mars One launched I happened to be at a conference that was sharing a venue with another conference on Mars planetology. It was great because of all the conversations it allowed us to start. However, I think about half the scientists I talked to agreed with my assessment that it was either a 2012-era social media pipe dream (e.g. Kony) or a scam.

shmerl• 8 years ago

Is it even still a thing?

saas_co_de• 8 years ago

They are as likely to go to Mars as Elon musk so at least they are in rare company

Robotbeat6• 8 years ago

I will be willing to bet that by 2040 SpaceX significantly helps send people to Mars, either by launching the people to orbit, launching a lot of the supplies (at least 40% by mass), building the Mars lander that lands people there, or even the whole-hog BFR/ITS architecture as Musk presented here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qo78R_yYFA

Willing to bet a $beverage?

SpaceX has the largest (by payload) current launch vehicle in the world, and pioneered supersonic retropropulsion for landing (a critical technology for human-scale Mars landers) which they use to reduce the cost of space launch with most flights. They're the only US company that does regular orbital capsule flights (including reentry and recovery), and they're one of two US companies that will be flying people to orbit within about a year. Their Falcon 9, also one of the largest rockets in the world, launched more often to orbit than any other rocket (of any size) in the world last year. They're also currently building a reusable upper stage (which is also a human-scale Mars lander) for an even larger launch vehicle. If anybody is going to be landing people on Mars within the next couple decades, they'll most likely be at least substantially helped by SpaceX.

vannevar6• 8 years ago

SpaceX is certainly in the best position of any private organization I know of to get to Mars, from the infrastructure perspective. But in terms of financing, the parent comment is right, Musk may not be a whole lot better off than Mars One in the big picture. A single manned mission to Mars could cost north of $100B, and the entire value of SpaceX is only about $20B. SpaceX is private, but estimates are that if it's profitable on an operating basis at all, it's only marginally so. Throw in Tesla's likely cash needs for the foreseeable future, and Musk may have some tough times coming. Money is going to decide the outcome here, not technology. Unless SpaceX finds some hugely profitable business to start generating cash (maybe their planned satellite constellation?), Mars is speculation.

theothermkn• 8 years ago

They are as likely to go to Mars as Elon musk so at least they are in rare company

While I've left your comment unvoted-upon, the downvotes are justified, in my view.

That said, I think Musk's optimism about Mars is pretty unjustified, but for reasons unrelated to launch vehicle technology, reasons that are shared by Mars One. The main reason is that we simply do not know how to sustain human life, in the long term, in less than 1 Earth gravity without deleterious effects, including the possible cessation of reproduction. This is to say nothing of the lower light levels on Mars, the rigors of designing CELSSs, the psychology of performing while never being able to go outside again (or possibly even never being able to return to Earth due to bone loss), and so on.

Musk has even said that the trip to Mars will be "fun" because you'll get to throw a ball around and play games in zero-g. He betrays a lack of serious engagement with the challenges of human spaceflight, to say nothing of the ongoing challenges of living on Mars. He understands the romance of gritting your teeth and eking out a living in a space Western, but not the realities of it. Mars One seems to share similar problems of vision.

Eventually, I think that, among other possibilities, either grown-ups will step in with regulation, or the grown-ups will stay away in droves from either project.

UncleEntity• 8 years ago

Eventually, I think that, among other possibilities, either grown-ups will step in with regulation, or the grown-ups will stay away in droves from either project.

...or Mars will be a place where there's only a few people living there for relatively short durations to do scientific research -- like Antarctica.

gizmo686• 8 years ago

The main reason is that we simply do not know how to sustain human life, in the long term, in less than 1 Earth gravity without deleterious effects, including the possible cessation of reproduction.

We do not know when the difficulty starts. Given our current knowledge, it is entirely possible that Martian gravity is sufficient for human health. We also know that even 0G is not acutely lethal (although the short term effects of returning to normal gravity are less then encouraging if we expect the people to be able to work as soon as they land on Mars).

This is just to say, we do not know how much of a problem Martian gravity is. There are still all of the difficulties we do know about.

It will probably be a long time (if ever) before we get a sustained "colony" on Mars, but humans setting foot on Mars is reasonably possible in the relatively near term. If we really wanted to, we could even make a "colony" simmilar to the ISS, where we have a permanantly staffed base, with a crew that stays for "short" (~year) time on Mars, combined with a year or two of total spaceflight.

I'm not remotely convinced this is worth doing. But it seems possible if we really wanted to do it.

celim307• 8 years ago

I mean, pay to apply? Any company serious about this effort knows they should be chasing the handful of people mentally and physically capable of surviving timhis endeavor, not the other way around.

novalis782• 8 years ago

MarsOne definitely introduced the concept of colonizing Mars to a wider audience. For that, I think, they get far less credit than they deserve.

hinkley3• 8 years ago

No, no it didn’t. For one, this is the first time I’ve heard of it.

And more importantly, I think you are forgetting Robert Zubrin and Mars Direct:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Zubrin

reustle• 8 years ago

"I didn't know about it therefore nobody did"

novalis782• 8 years ago

I have not forgotten about Zubrin of whom I am a big fan personally. The PR machinery that MarsOne kickstarted for a couple of years brought a ton of discussion about colonizing Mars that was very well worth it. It also galvanized a lot of support and brought people around the globe together that believed in humanity’s ‘next big step’

ccccccccccccc• 8 years ago

Mars One is like the Fire festival of space

upofadown• 8 years ago

If they are actually spending their money on things to advance their cause then it is not a scam. It is likely an unwise enterprise and a terrible investment, but a scam is different...

8bitsrule• 8 years ago

MO promotes the concept of going to Mars ... that seems to be its main raison d'etre.

voidmain• 8 years ago

The best thing to come out of Mars One is the satirical ad campaign by the state of South Dakota. "Why die on Mars when you can live in South Dakota?"

[1] http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/21/news/economy/south-dakota-ma...

Mars One Is a “Money Grab” Where Everyone Loses

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