Mars One

[esp803]

I think this is aviation related enough to warrant a thread of it's own.

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

For those of you who haven't been following, this is essentially a privately funded one way trip to Mars for (initially) 4 people. Personally I'd love nothing more then to see these guys succeed. I'm not sure I believe it's possible for the program to get fully off the ground (earth), but in the off chance they do launch for Mars in 2025 as planned, I will be giddy like a school child for years from it!

What are all of your thoughts on (I'm not posting all the information on their website, please do some research):

Can it be done?
Can it be sustained?
Would you consider a one way trip to a different planet?
How would you do living the same 4,8,12,16 people?
Do you think privately funded operations into space are the way of the future (Ie, Virgin Galactic)?

E

['97 Tercel]

Interesting website...

I like the pictures of the applicants -
one of them is sitting on the couch with his significant other, haha... "so long Honey!". Is that legal grounds for divorce?..."he moved to Mars".

Anyway, I think it'll go one day but the settlers will prob kill each other after about 3 months.

[goldeneagle]

For those of you who haven't been following, this is essentially a privately funded one way trip to Mars for (initially) 4 people.

No it's not. It's casting for another 'vote em off' type of reality show. the hype suggests, that show will ultimately fund the trip, but, the math doesn't add up. It'll never generate enough money to

a) design
b) build
c) launch

a one way mission to mars.

For those who think otherwise, you need to brush up on the 'rocket science', and take a peek at what it costs to put a vehicle into orbit, then look at what kind of vehicle is required to accelerate that vehicle, along with 4 people and a years worth of grub, onto a hallman trajectory that intersects mars. Just do the basic math, figure out how much fuel it takes, using a 100% efficient liquid hydrogen / oxygen engine, then figure out how much it will cost to lift that amount of lh2/o2 into low orbit for the kick off point.

Hint, it'll make the ISS look like chump change in comparison.

[photofly]

Can it be done?
Can it be sustained?

And who (AvCanada contributors or others) would you choose to send? Remember it's one way only...

[esp803]

I think it'll go one day but the settlers will prob kill each other after about 3 months

It's casting for another 'vote em off' type of reality show

Seems like a winning combination to me!

E

[ahramin]

Not a serious project.

[frozen solid]

Nothing good ever came from "reality TV". For this reason I feel at the moment that this will end up being another TV goat-show. I usually try not to be negative though, and I will be pleased if I am wrong. Perfectly happy not going to Mars though. I would miss trees too much. I think right now living away from the ocean is driving me nuts, imagine being on Mars. Forever. Boy that would take guts.

[Cessna driver]

Can it be done?
Can it be sustained?

And who (AvCanada contributors or others) would you choose to send? Remember it's one way only...

Colonel sanders....kidding!

[KnownIce]

Can it be done?
Can it be sustained?

And who (AvCanada contributors or others) would you choose to send? Remember it's one way only...

Colonel sanders....kidding!

Real question is how long after his arrival would it take him to post on here (multiple) pictures of a formation outside, surface level loop performed at only 1/3 of earth's gravity? Perhaps someone smarter than me can photoshop up a preview?

[Cessna driver]

Hahaha. Or how to operate a piston on mars

[photofly]

from http://what-if.xkcd.com/30/

Mars: To see what happens to aircraft on Mars, we turn to X-Plane.
X-Plane is the most advanced flight simulator in the world. The product of 20 years of obsessive labor by a hardcore aeronautics enthusiast who uses capslock a lot when talking about planes, it actually simulates the flow of air over every piece of an aircraft’s body as it flies. This makes it a valuable research tool, since it can accurately simulate entirely new aircraft designs—and new environments.
In particular, if you change the X-Plane config file to reduce gravity, thin the atmosphere, and shrink the radius of the planet it can simulate flight on Mars. (Note: Thank you to Tom J and the folks in the X-Plane community for their help with aerodynamic calculations in different atmospheres.)
X-Plane tells us that flight on Mars is difficult, but not impossible. NASA knows this, and has considered surveying Mars by airplane. The tricky thing is that with so little atmosphere, to get any lift, you have to go fast. You need to approach Mach 1 just to get off the ground, and once you get moving, you have so much inertia that it’s hard to change course—if you turn, your plane rotates, but keeps moving in the original direction. The X-Plane author compared piloting Martian aircraft to flying a supersonic ocean liner.
Our Cessna 172 isn’t up to the challenge. Launched from 1 km, it doesn’t build up enough speed to pull out of a dive, and plows into the Martian terrain at over 60 m/s (135 mph). If dropped from four or five kilometers, it could gain enough speed to pull up into a glide—at over half the speed of sound. The landing would not be survivable.

[arctic_slim]

I like the idea of the show and it's a great start to human colonization. But, turning the selection process into a relaity show in my opinion is going to attract some crazy people who want their 15 mins of fame. I know that they're recruiting based on education and experience etc but I don't think this will attract the best and brightest, just a bunch of people who want to be on TV.

I really hope that it is a success and that we get people there with a self sustaining colony but right now I think it's just a dream. I hope I am proven wrong though.

In my opinion, Justin Bieber should be the first one to be sent to Mars. Get him off this planet.

[daedalusx]

Wrong. Xplane isnt even close to simulating orbits, free space and gravity the way orbiter does.

[digits_]

I hope it works out. At the very least it gives people the impression it's possible, which may "pressure" governments to actually try it themselves one day.

Regarding the finance: if you see how much free marketing he's getting because of his crazy idea, I think it would be able to get enough advertising income globally to finance the plan. If they turn it into a real reality show, and focus on the important things of the mission instead of who's sleeping with whom, I'll even watch it.

[1000 HP]

from http://what-if.xkcd.com/30/

Mars: To see what happens to aircraft on Mars, we turn to X-Plane.
X-Plane is the most advanced flight simulator in the world. The product of 20 years of obsessive labor by a hardcore aeronautics enthusiast who uses capslock a lot when talking about planes, it actually simulates the flow of air over every piece of an aircraft’s body as it flies. This makes it a valuable research tool, since it can accurately simulate entirely new aircraft designs—and new environments.
In particular, if you change the X-Plane config file to reduce gravity, thin the atmosphere, and shrink the radius of the planet it can simulate flight on Mars. (Note: Thank you to Tom J and the folks in the X-Plane community for their help with aerodynamic calculations in different atmospheres.)
X-Plane tells us that flight on Mars is difficult, but not impossible. NASA knows this, and has considered surveying Mars by airplane. The tricky thing is that with so little atmosphere, to get any lift, you have to go fast. You need to approach Mach 1 just to get off the ground, and once you get moving, you have so much inertia that it’s hard to change course—if you turn, your plane rotates, but keeps moving in the original direction. The X-Plane author compared piloting Martian aircraft to flying a supersonic ocean liner.
Our Cessna 172 isn’t up to the challenge. Launched from 1 km, it doesn’t build up enough speed to pull out of a dive, and plows into the Martian terrain at over 60 m/s (135 mph). If dropped from four or five kilometers, it could gain enough speed to pull up into a glide—at over half the speed of sound. The landing would not be survivable.

What a great post. I was so impressed that I just ordered X-plane online. I hope that it is as good for practicing IFR as the Microsoft was. I'm planning to do my IFR in the next year once I put the correct equipment in my airplane.

As far as the Mars One program goes there should be a lot of interest and many people willing to be one of the first pioneers. Will it ever get off the ground? Not unless they ditch the reality show concept as a major source of funding. Ha! But I am a supporter and have actually ordered a set of Mars One coffee mugs. They just need to sell 6 billion more mugs and the mission is a go. But the Mars One Fans forum http://marsonefans.com/ has so little action you gotta wonder if there really is any pioneering spirit left in the human race. They do more complaining on there then on this forum.

I'd go but I'll be too dang old in 12 or 14 years when/if they launch. I will stick to SCUBA Diving and flying.

[1000 HP]

I hope it works out. At the very least it gives people the impression it's possible, which may "pressure" governments to actually try it themselves one day.

Regarding the finance: if you see how much free marketing he's getting because of his crazy idea, I think it would be able to get enough advertising income globally to finance the plan. If they turn it into a real reality show, and focus on the important things of the mission instead of who's sleeping with whom, I'll even watch it.

The "who's sleeping with who" thing would get boring quick. With only 2 men and 2 women going. Although there was at least one transgender that applied.

[MrWings]

Sounds like a TV reality scam. Those who "win" will never make it to Mars.

Then again, I never thought the elected Alberta Senators would be appointed to the Red Chamber either.

[oldtimer]

How many bets on if they succeed, someone will get to Mars, not like the shopping and want to come home.

[frozen solid]

You can just picture a privately-funded mission getting to Mars (only in the world of imagination: in reality if they can get enough publicity-based revenue pantomiming an attempt and every executive on the team goes home with their wallets full, then why would there be any profit in actually lighting the match and sending them?) let's say they get there and are then dependent for support on some corporation and, if the economy takes a turn for the worse, the social conscience and accountability of a CEO and a team of fat-cats? No thanks. I'm not naive about government but I think I'd take my chances with a democratic government and a real space-program nevertheless. Perhaps Ayn Rand would be comfortable throwing her very (expensive) survival into the hands of a board of directors, but not me!

I recently listened to a science-fiction podcast on that very subject. A team of astronauts were on Mars and some kind of economic catastrophe had made it impossible for a supply ship to be launched. The commander succeeded in contacting the Chinese government, who were the only entity on earth with the wherewithal to send an automated supply ship. The Chinese were a little ticked off at not having been invited to participate in the mission in the first place, had been working on sending a ship of their own, and were inclined to gloat a little at the misfortune of the expedition. Nevertheless they were able to barter with them, and the agreement was made to send a ship with "x" amount of supplies, plus a Chinese flag which was to be raised on Mars by the unfortunate colonists. Of course when the ship arrived it contained nothing but the flag. There's more to it than that but my memory sucks and you get the drift anyway.

Me, I'm happy to contemplate a retirement where there's booze and an ocean to sit with my feet in. When I was younger the one-way-trip idea seemed very romantic to me, thank god it's just a pipe dream. I've since decided I like it on Earth very, very much.

[FL001]

Thinking along the lines of the survivors of the HMS Bounty on Pitcairn Island:

If they send 3 men and 1 woman, eventually the men will kill each other off until the ratio is 1 man and 1 woman.

If they send 2 men and 2 women, the jealousy that will erupt will make the ratio 1 man and 2 women.

The only way I foresee no immediate deaths is if they send 1 man and 3 women. As hot as this sounds, after a month or so I'm sure this situation would be that mans hell.

[Colonel Sanders]

Remember the "biosphere" project? They spent
hundreds of millions of dollars to prove that eight
four-bars could live in a Walmart for six months.

[Eleveniron]

How do we go about nominating someone... or a few someones?

[Beefitarian]

Remember the "biosphere" project? They spent
hundreds of millions of dollars to prove that eight
four-bars could live in a Walmart for six months.

I liked when Pauly Shore and Steve Baldwin ordered pizza.