One-Way Mars Trip: 1,058 Private Martian Colony Volunteers Pass 1st Cut

Hmm, it would be nice to be among the first on another planet, but it would also be nice to be among the last on this one

Humans before us probably always wondered about us. We all get to be in the "transition" at the end of the day - the 1000 odd candidates are just going down the slide first

We take our current status as 21st century humans for granted sometimes...

samkent
So lets create a welfare state on Mars.
They will forever be dependant on us for new hardware and special food stuffs.

Have the prospectives thought about what happens when people down here decide it's they don't want to spend their money on a resupply mission?

We have short attention spans. We will get bored quickly.

I think the goal is to have the colony eventually be self sufficient. The supply missions will bring not just food but equipment to help the colonists "live off the land" so to speak.

I signed up for this awhile back and was accepted and invited to a meeting in Washington, DC but I decided it wasn't for me when it became a facebook popularity contest.

My worry is the kind of people that make for great reality TV would be the worst kind of people for a serious mission such as this.

lostbook
"One way trips to Mars..Take one....Action.." The colonization of Mars will be a televised event with cameras rolling as colonists travel to the Red planet in pairs of 2's starting around 2023.

Mars One officials have said in the past that they plan to broadcast a reality TV show to track the astronauts' selection and training process (and raise funds for the missions). Lansdorp said Monday that the group is still in negotiations with media companies over the rights to televise Mars One's activities.

So going to Mars is now going to be a reality TV show.

What a #ing joke humanity has become.

Where is the :absolutedespair: emoticon?

CaticusMaximus

lostbook
"One way trips to Mars..Take one....Action.." The colonization of Mars will be a televised event with cameras rolling as colonists travel to the Red planet in pairs of 2's starting around 2023.

Mars One officials have said in the past that they plan to broadcast a reality TV show to track the astronauts' selection and training process (and raise funds for the missions). Lansdorp said Monday that the group is still in negotiations with media companies over the rights to televise Mars One's activities.

So going to Mars is now going to be a reality TV show.

What a #ing joke humanity has become.

We've got to get there some way. Humanity chooses to spend the majority of its money/resources on two things: Weapons and Entertainment.

Since the weapons people don't like to share then what other option in mounting a private mission like this is there?

Too many think it's like explorers of old.
But it's not.
On Mars you are one hole away from suffocation 24/7.
Exposure on Earth gives you minutes to hours no matter the weather. On Mars it's seconds year round.
You cannot live off the land until resupply comes.
You will die of cancer. If not from an accident. There will be no old age deaths.

The whole thing looks like a fantasy come true until the facts are laid out.
Mars doesn't allow for a margin.

JadeStar

We've got to get there some way.

Bull#. What "we" have "got" to do is mature, a lot, before even thinking of leaving the polluted and ecologically collapsing planet we are on now, before thinking about anything else.

You are right, money goes to either entertainment, or violence. And until that changes, and until there is a shift in the fundamental nature of the human towards a more compassionate thought paradigm, I think it would be best if humanity remained contained, and not spreading its corruption of the heart to any other planets, even if they be barren planets, or even little more than floating rocks.

There are much more pressing issues than going to mars. Much more.

This event is much more than just "colonnizing" another planet, it's also about Space infrastructure being put in place. Once we have a presence on Mars; the destination, it will be a lot easier to establish the parts that will make up the roadway to Mars: ie interplanetary internet "communications," fueling depots, cargo transport access, cosmic currency: ie Bitcion? There's a lot more to it, I'm sure, but this is what comes off the top of my head.

No, things aren't perfect for the Earth or the people upon it, but guess what? It never will be. Things aren't made to be that way.

Leave it to some of the small thinkers of ATS to begin tearing down the whole idea without apparently even looking into the issue at all. In reality there is more on mars then just rocks and electrified dust, the colony will not have to be maintained with supply lines from earth forever and there are many interesting resources that could make the colony and people living there more profitable and valuable then the people on earth.

There are many minerals and resources that will eventually be useful for not only sustaining the colonies and making them self sufficient, but also provide profitable resources for the planet.

The Key life support compounds are avalible on the planet; O2, N2, H2O

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...

Abstract Spacecraft exploration of Mars has shown that the essential resources necessary for life support are present on the martian surface. The key life-support compounds O2, N2, and H2O are available on Mars. The soil could be used as radiation shielding and could provide many useful industrial and construction materials. Compounds with high chemical energy, such as rocket fuels, can be manufactured in-situ on Mars. Solar power, and possibly wind power, are available and practical on Mars. Preliminary engineering studies indicate that fairly autonomous processes can be designed to extract and stockpile Martian consumables. The ability to utilize these materials in support of a human exploration effort allows missions that are more robust and economical than would otherwise be possible.

Atmosphere for the colony can also be created by converting CO2

ares.jsc.nasa.gov...

The carbon dioxide (CO2) that makes up 95 percent of the atmosphere of Mars can be a valuable starting material for the manufacture of critical products. Unlike lunar resources, CO2 can be had by merely compressing the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide itself can be used to support plant growth at an advanced outpost. Both carbon and oxygen are important elements which have many possible uses at an outpost. There are several well understood chemical reactions that we can use to produce oxygen, methane, water, and perhaps other materials.

Oxygen can be produced by passing CO2 through a zirconia electrolysis cell at 800 to 1000deg C. Twenty to thirty percent of the CO2 dissociates into oxygen and carbon monoxide. Separation is accomplished by electrochemical transport of oxide ion through a membrane. A prototype reactor using this chemistry has been run for over 1000 hours. Using such a scheme, we could bring a small unit to the surface of Mars which would then continuously make oxygen for life support, propellant use, or further processing. The only additional item we would need to supply is the power to run it: a 12kW unit would produce about one metric ton of oxygen per month.

Also there are extremily valuble resources on Mars:

One very valuble for the energy production sector: Deuterium

www.nss.org...

But there is one commercial resource that is known to exist ubiquitously on Mars in large amount — deuterium. Deuterium, the heavy isotope of hydrogen, occurs as 166 out of every million hydrogen atoms on Earth, but comprises 833 out of every million hydrogen atoms on Mars. Deuterium is the key fuel not only for both first and second generation fusion reactors, but it is also an essential material needed by the nuclear power industry today. Even with cheap power, deuterium is very expensive; its current market value on Earth is about $10,000 per kilogram, roughly fifty times as valuable as silver or 70% as valuable as gold. This is in today's pre-fusion economy. Once fusion reactors go into widespread use deuterium prices will increase. All the in-situ chemical processes required to produce the fuel, oxygen, and plastics necessary to run a Mars settlement require water electrolysis as an intermediate step. As a by product of these operations, millions, perhaps billions, of dollars worth of deuterium will be produced.

And might even be able to make rocket fuel on Mars

ares.jsc.nasa.gov...

A chemical reaction which converts CO2 into methane (CH4) was discovered in 1899. This is known as the Sabatier reaction. Along with the CO2, hydrogen is passed over a finely divided metal catalyst at an elevated temperature. Methane and water vapor are produced. By taking this water vapor and splitting it to obtain oxygen and hydrogen (which is recycled), we can completely convert the imported material into 4 times its mass of fuel. We also get the oxygen we need to burn this fuel in a rocket engine, fuel cell, or internal combustion engine. When combined with the production of additional oxygen via the zirconia process described above, only 4 kilograms of hydrogen can be converted into 72 kilograms of a rocket propellant mixture.

There are many mineral resources available

en.wikipedia.org...

It has for some time been accepted by the scientific community that a group of meteorites came from Mars. As such, they represent actual samples of the planet and have been analyzed on Earth by the best equipment available. In these meteorites, called SNCs, many valuable elements have been detected. Magnesium, Aluminium, Titanium, Iron, and Chromium are relatively common in them. In addition, lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, niobium, molybdenum, lanthanum, europium, tungsten, and gold have been found in trace amounts. It is quite possible that in some places these materials may be concentrated enough to be mined.[29] The Mars landers Viking I, Viking II, Pathfinder, Opportunity Rover, and Spirit Rover identified aluminium, iron, magnesium, and titanium in the Martian soil.[30] Opportunity found small structures, named "blueberries" which were found to be rich in hematite, a major ore of iron.[31] These blueberries could easy be gathered up and reduced to metallic iron that could be used to make steel. "Blueberries" (hematite spheres) on a rocky outcrop at Eagle Crater. Note the merged triplet in the upper left. In addition,both Spirit and Opportunity Rovers found nickel-iron meteorites sitting on the surface of Mars.[32][33] These could also be used to produce steel.[34]

(cont. in next post)

(cont. from previous post)

Along with the mineral resources the chemical resources can be converted to make plenty of building supplies and infrastrutre to continue to upgrade and expand the colonies right on the surface.

ares.jsc.nasa.gov...

Other well known reactions have been practiced for decades which can also accomplish similar conversions. Fischer-Tropsch chemistry is practiced in the petrochemical industry in a variety of ways. It converts carbon monoxide and hydrogen into methane and water. The Bosch reaction can convert CO2 and hydrogen into carbon and water. The carbon could, perhaps, be used for advanced material production at an outpost once fabrication facilities are available.

Eventually, we will obtain water from the environment of Mars. We would then not need to make water from imported hydrogen. Indeed, we could turn the situation around and use this water as a source of hydrogen, thus continuing to utilize the chemical processing capabilities we have developed. For instance, it would be even more favorable to produce methane from the atmospheric CO2 and water derived hydrogen. This would require the production of much less water than if we switched the space transportation system to a hydrogen-oxygen propellant system. It is also much easier to liquefy methane than hydrogen.

With a large amount of hydrogen available, and a ready supply of CO2, we may consider going the next step and developing the ability to produce a large variety of products. If ethylene were produced from hydrogen and a carbon source, polyethylene can be made using technology available today. This material, or other carbon-based polymers, can then be extruded or molded to form habitats, furniture, pipes, and a variety of useful items. The petrochemical and natural gas industries can contribute a great deal of expertise in this area.

The truth is Mars has the resources to not only eventually sustain any colonies and maybe future cities and factories, but has enough to also become a valuable and profitable asset to the whole of the human race. If we do not colonies and utilize Mars, it won't be because it is worthless place with no resources or because it would be an unprofitable endeavor, but because much of the human race are still space fearing and hating Luddites, who would never risk their own safety and comfort, even if it has long term benefits for the entire human race and can't imagine any other people that might want to do so.

Just my opinion though

Love this. there should be more companies doing this and I think there will be with the success this project as had so far. All be it mainly PR success. Humanities only hope is to colonize the solar system. This is a leap forward in that direction. We should all get behind it instead of naysaying it. Negativity breeds negativity.

reply to post by prisoneronashipoffools


Thank you very much for putting into words what needs to be said. You said it better than I could.

reply to post by Bassago


All we need to survive on Mars is water and ATS my friend!

CaticusMaximus

JadeStar

We've got to get there some way.

Bull#. What "we" have "got" to do is mature, a lot, before even thinking of leaving the polluted and ecologically collapsing planet we are on now, before thinking about anything else.

You are right, money goes to either entertainment, or violence. And until that changes, and until there is a shift in the fundamental nature of the human towards a more compassionate thought paradigm, I think it would be best if humanity remained contained, and not spreading its corruption of the heart to any other planets, even if they be barren planets, or even little more than floating rocks.

There are much more pressing issues than going to mars. Much more.

The pressing issues you are thinking of are not mutually exclusive to seeing that we aren't someday wiped out like the dinosaurs.

And what better way of learning how to live together and deal with our increasingly inhabitable planet than learning how to live together in harmony (no margin for error if we can't) on a planet that is totally inhabitable like Mars?

There will never be a perfect time or some "golden age of humanity" from which we decide to venture forth into the cosmos. The reason Europeans fled to the Americas was not because things were perfect in Europe.

On a greater scale the reasons why humanity ever ventured out of the savannah in Africa was not because life there was ideal but because there were pressures which forced our ancestors to venture forth.

We are facing grim times but those times will be grimmer if we DON'T get behind something as a planet and begin to learn how to work together.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. As long as it is business as usual as a one-planet species nothing will change unless there is another world war (which would be the end of us all).

"It has to start somewhere, it has to start sometime. What better place than here? What better time than now? All hell, can't stop us now!" - Zach DeLa Rocha

samkent
So lets create a welfare state on Mars.
They will forever be dependant on us for new hardware and special food stuffs.

Have the prospectives thought about what happens when people down here decide it's they don't want to spend their money on a resupply mission?

We have short attention spans. We will get bored quickly.

Well it won't be like that, if we make it that long. Man look around we are killing this earth. They don't talk about it anymore but if you look you can find it..... Another day in China cities where you can't breathe the air or see in front of your face the pollution is so thick. We are all paying the cost of the rise of China and no one even talks about it.

The Georgia guide stones talk about five hundred million as the necessary population count. Why, because they know our resources are finite. Especially our water. In the coming years water will be the number one commodity, bought and sold. That and grain will be worth more than gold.

I won't see these times but my granddaughter, whom I raise will. The time will come when the elysium comes true. We will be waiting greatly anticipating that mining and teraforming is going well on mars and that we can some board ships to go there.

Guys you seen the videos of recent fireballs that we did not know was coming, at least we, the public did not. It only takes one of these, or one pandemic, one nuke etc etc. The doom porn scenarios are real whether we want to believe they are or not. After ww1 they said it will never happen again, they said the same for two.

We could change things but I see no one wanting to step up to do this. We are all to comfortable and absorbed in just surviving. The really smart folks, there are a few here, would have to unite with others to solve some our problems and change our world.

I think a colony on mars is necessary, and a first step in our species surviving. I wish it were not so.

So come on you genius atsers, let's get zero point energy a reality and out to the masses. Which to me is our only real hope. If the one percent let it happen. Power and money really is the root of all evil.

The Bot

So think of a colony on mars that grows every two years and not just with Mars One but with other sats, probs, rovers and manned missions. Think of massive mining operations that would reduce our need for mining on earth. Think of the way we could use mars to leapfrog to other planets, to set up telescopes there with different ranges. Think of a huge billion person city on Mars that grows by millions every year with people leaving earth. There's nothing to pollute on Mars....no trees to kill, no animals to kill, no atmosphere to destroy. The whole planet could be a City that never stops growing. Think of no more population or pollution or resource concerns. It boggles the mind. think of how we expanded on this planet...one explorer, one ship one caravan at a time. Once we're there, the problems will work themselves out. they will have to. It will be amazing. This has to be done.

reply to post by rickymouse


Those boys and gals in the ISS are just a magicians trick, a smoke screen, thats ALL that our beloved NASA is, a smoke screen.

My personal belief is that all the elite that we speak of here, the 'Illuminati" are running a secret space program, and as we speak now, have men and women cruising through space, on star ships. Hell, we might even have colonies on other worlds now, outside of the solar system, or at least within our own. Undoubtedly on the Moon, and Mars, there's a good chance they could be on Titan as well.

This mars one crap is total bollocks.