These people applied to go to Mars

http://applicants.mars-one.com/

by shrikant • 13 years ago

68 55 13 years ago

applicants.mars-one.com

gluegeorge• 13 years ago

"go to mars"

stephengillie3• 13 years ago

"GOTO Mars"

pliny• 13 years ago

These people applied to die on Mars, or possibly on the way to Mars.

coldtea• 13 years ago

No, they merely apply to go to Mars.

The dying part, they can do here just as well.

Ecio78• 13 years ago

From a philosophical (but also biological) point of view, sooner or later we will all die. From an economical point of view, the Registration fee is way cheaper than a grave on the Earth :-)

stfu• 13 years ago

Somehow clicking through these profiles makes me feel uncomfortable. Why does everything have to become some kind of public popularity contest.

stephengillie3• 13 years ago

It feels like a dating site to me. Or Hotornot et al. Marsroulette?

tnuc• 13 years ago

490 people times $38 application fee. $18620 collected thus far.

Maybe someone could start a site to send people to the sun? I'm sure it would work if they went at night.

martinshen• 13 years ago

Isn't this just a scam?

hkmurakami• 13 years ago

only marginally more so than the OP project

shmageggy2• 13 years ago

Another article [1] says over 20,000 people applied, which is over three quarters of a million dollars.

[1] http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/04/more-than-20000-peopl...

bshastry• 13 years ago

The application fee varies from country to country [1].

[1] http://mars-one.com/en/faq-en/29-faq-registration-fee/408-wh...

rdl2• 13 years ago

You'd make more if you took money to send third parties to the sun.

stcredzero• 13 years ago

They are going at night? :)

whatshisface• 13 years ago

Elsewhere on the website, they discuss a few reasons why they think they are more likely to complete their mission than others who have attempted. Sadly, a couple of their points seem a bit iffy:

- Simple rovers – Through the use of relatively simple rovers, designed to conduct basic settlement construction prior to human astronaut arrival, saving both time and cost.

I'm not a professional aerospace engineer, but construction robots seem just a bit more complicated than picture-taking robots. (oversimplification, but you get my point.) If it's so much easier, how come robots aren't building houses here on earth?

- No new developments – The entire plan revolves around the use of existing, validated technology

The falcon heavy hasn't even been built yet, I don't know how they can say this.

kiba• 13 years ago

By their settlement date, a falcon heavy or a variant of it, should be ready.

shmageggy2• 13 years ago

So it doesn't exist, and is therefore unvalidated...

thoughtcriminal2• 13 years ago

I suspect most of these people won't go when the chips are down. The training, mounting stress and creeping realization that this mission is most likely suicidal will separate the wheat from the chafes.

Having said that, I have half the mind to go, but that's also why I'm not. I'm not particularly sane or stoic, and this would make me crack for sure.

sliverstorm2• 13 years ago

I think that's a given. I'm sure the same thing happened for the first rockets and the first moon landings. Thank heavens they were successful, but I bet more than a few astronauts in training had doubts.

goldfeld• 13 years ago

I think a lot of people on here have that half mind to go (though probably not on this particular programme). This is the closest thing to the settling of the Americas ever since; it's something historically meaningful to be a pioneer. Granted, what keeps us grounded are our dreams and plans, and the fact that it's most likely suicidal.

zalzane• 13 years ago

This feels like one of the most "in your face" scams I've seen in awhile.

The first thing I wanted to find out when I visited the site is where they got their funding - of course that section is absent from the site. The second thing I looked up is how they expected to get there and how they were solving the engineering challenges involved. On the technology page I found a dumbed down list of the different modules involved in the launch, and on the "is this really possible?" page I got a tidbit telling me they were using solar panels and nonpressurized rovers.

The icing on the cake is the $38 application fee and the note that "The entire plan revolves around the use of existing, validated technology".

thoughtcriminal2• 13 years ago

A modest processing fee isn't unreasonable. It ensures only those who are truly serious apply, and the money would help cover the many costs of this campaign.

Common, don't be so cynical.

knowtheory• 13 years ago

Hello Poe's Law†.

†: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poes_law

ubersync• 13 years ago

Exactly my thought. They have a graphics designer on their team! Actually, I think the graphics designer is the only person who has done anything for this project so far. And those letters from SpaceX etc, that they show in the video, ha ha, a typical scam indicator. I'll rather go buy myself a couple drinks in the club with those $38 tonight.

skrebbel• 13 years ago

There's less than 500 people on that page. Let's be wild and assume they quadruple that to 2000 applicants. Times 38 dollars, that's less than 80000 dollars.

For that, they made an elaborate web page, did tons of PR outreach (not just on the internet; they're Dutch, and have been in Dutch traditional media a fair lot). They even got a reputable university on board (Universiteit Twente).

To scam people out of $80k?

No. They actually believe that there's a fair chance that they'll pull this off. Whether that's a sensible belief is another thing entirely, but they believe it.

You do know that they plan to finance the trip by selling TV show rights for it? Even if it miserably fails, it's great television.

api2• 13 years ago

A reality TV show or viral marketing stunt is more likely than an outright scam.

pawelwentpawel• 13 years ago

One thing is the application fee. Second are google ads (very unrelated in my case). It would be too bad if it turned out to be a complete scam. It occurs to me that some of those people put quite a lot of effort into making their "demo" videos (not all of them are webcam presentations).

api2• 13 years ago

I was a little on the fence at first, but their insane timetable has convinced me it's either a scam or -- more likely -- some kind of reality TV or viral marketing stunt.

Too bad. I would like to see a serious effort to go to Mars. But that will probably come from Hawthorne, CA.

SCAQTony• 13 years ago

I suggest that death row inmates be selected for the "Mars One" mission. These inmates are the most practiced at being forcibly confined in a hopeless environment and would be the most inspired individuals to make a death sentence into a life sentence. Australia is a de facto example.

mostly_harmless• 13 years ago

Then again, throwing a whole bunch of murderers into a can with no authority figures to referee is bound to end badly

scotth2• 13 years ago

Just send the guards too.

Samuel_Michon2• 13 years ago

So true, before you know it, they start building cars like these: http://blogs.motortrend.com/from-there-to-here-57-years-of-h...

claudius• 13 years ago

I’d say that ‘we won’t surivive if we kill each other’ is a pretty strong authority figure.

grimtrigger• 13 years ago

"Don't attribute to malice what you can attribute to stupidity".

I think taking application fees even when they are at least 10 years away from their goal is absurd and probably unethical, but it looks like their team has a sincere desire to make the mission happen. Its threads like this that make me wish HN was not so cynical.

sliverstorm2• 13 years ago

Remember to quote it correctly:

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity

The differences may be subtle, but the meaning is quite distinct from the way you phrased it.

scotth2• 13 years ago

Blah blah blah

fixxer• 13 years ago

"Spaceman I always wanted you to go Into space man..."

jasonm23• 13 years ago

"He's the Chungwit the Biff Boff and the Puff Pastry Hangman"

(ref: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3XgouVH9-Y )

mtowle2• 13 years ago

Couldn't help but notice the applicants are almost exclusively white people. What do you make of that?

ghostbrainalpha• 13 years ago

Mars planet is a racist... obviously.

mtowle2• 13 years ago

Your snark is much appreciated. Sometimes a question is just a question.

enupten• 13 years ago

That white people are less sane ?

stephengillie3• 13 years ago

I think it means that most of the applicants are of European descent. Are most of them Americans too?

CoffeeDregs• 13 years ago

Putting aside fees and whatever, that was straight-up unpleasant. I watched about 10 videos, between recent, popular and random. I appreciate the people for submitting videos and such, but this is a serious endeavor and none of them would have a chance in a real mission. I suspect most are treating it like a vanity exercise. This felt more like a reality TV show about going to Mars. Unfortunately, seriously interested and competent folks were probably mixed into the rabble clamoring for attention.

I seriously respect the [real] folks that sign up for the eventual, one-way trip to Mars, but these seem not to be the folks. It's going to be hard. It's going to be unpleasant. And it's going to end both badly [in a sense] and gloriously. I didn't see that gravitas reflected in the folks I watched.

nostromo• 13 years ago

> This felt more like a reality TV show about going to Mars.

That's because that's what it is! Literally! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_One

> A global reality-TV media event is intended to provide most of the funds to finance the expedition.

mvzink• 13 years ago

How could it even go to air? It would be such an incredibly deep and likely harrowing experience that it couldn't possibly be entertaining except perhaps to psychotics—and even if it was funny or something, that in itself would be absolutely horrifying. That said, I would have to see it for its depth and significance.

mladenkovacevic• 13 years ago

It seems like one of the questions all the applicants are answering is "how would you describe your sense of humour?" I'd say it would have to be pretty poor to go along with this joke.

rowanseymour• 13 years ago

If I was looking for people to build the first human colony on Mars I'd want the most mentally stable, non-egotistical, discerning people on planet Earth. Precisely the last people who'd make videos of themselves and apply to be on a reality TV program.

Samuel_Michon2• 13 years ago

Out of these 490 submissions, 422 are men, 68 are women (you think dating on Earth is hard? Try Mars!). 164 applicants are over 30 (they will be over 40 when this trip is supposed to happen). Then again, they’ve got at least one flight instructor[1] and one person studying to become a mortician[2], so I’m sure this will work out just fine.

[1] http://goo.gl/v7OYg

[2] http://goo.gl/Vygy4

buro9• 13 years ago

Having read all of that I suspect it's an elaborate plot for a TV series in which they will dupe some of the applicants into believing they are going to Mars and film them in an ultra-extreme Big Brother capsule for a sustained period of time.

There is precedent, in the UK there was a program that duped 10 people into believing they were orbiting Earth: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Cadets_(TV_series)

These people applied to go to Mars

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