Pie in the Sky?

Palmpilot

Palmpilot

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Richard Palm
I called this thread "Pie in the Sky?" because one of the many unanswered questions on the Mars One web site is how the immigrants to Mars will grow enough food to live on. (The time between supply missions would be two years!)

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

This is a commercial venture, and if the company goes bankrupt before the Mars settlers become self-sufficient, they will be SOL. Can you imagine trusting your survival to TV ratings? :yikes:

And considering the level of infrastructure required to manufacture replacement parts for their equipment, self-sufficiency would take a loooooooong time!

Their "Is this Really Possible?" page has huge gaps in it:

http://mars-one.com/en/mission/is-this-really-possible

It is assumed that the settlers would spend the rest of their lives on Mars. Unless the plan is a lot better thought through than what is evident on their Web site, I predict that "the rest of their lives" will turn out to be a very short time!

It will be interesting to see if they are able to find enough applicants who are competent enough to meet the needs of the mission.

Commenters on the Yahoo article have spotted some of the major flaws in this plan:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/upshot/mars-one-one-way-ticket-red-planet-192011042.html

Should we classify this project under the heading of "There's a sucker born every minute," or is it going to be just another "reality" show, that will fizzle before they get around to spending any real money?
 
At the risk of shoving this into the Spin Zone, if they REALLY want ratings, have the viewers vote for those who will be sent to Mars....willingly or not. :D

Donald Trump

Kim Jong Un

...???
 
This can not possibly work simply because it is being conceived and planned by a bunch of foreigners who talk like they have a mouthful of marbles.

All my life, every movie, every comic book, every story, all had one thing in common. It was Americans who make the trip to Mars, not foreigners. It is doomed from the git go.

-John
 
They are obviously good at making pretty webpages. Logical planning? Not so much.
Look at their "Roadmap" Their timeline has a load of food arriving two years before a rover which will "explore the planet looking for a suitable place to live". I'm no rocket scientist, but I would think you would find out where your colony is going to be before you start plonking food down willy nilly.
 
Years ago a friend of mine decided to move himself and his family to Hawaii. He was a fairly decent artist and his paintings sold well enough to support the four of them. At first they all loved it, but then he got what was known as "Island fever". He felt completely trapped after he had made the big move.

He had lived over there for over a year at one time, but he had never planned on staying. He only lasted six months when he moved everyone back to San Diego.

I think that would be a huge issue for anyone who planned to spend the rest of their lives on Mars, especially when everything they did was confined to a little "habitat" capsule, or a space suit. It would be worse than a prison sentence, knowing you could never go home, breath fresh air, feel the wind on your skin ever again.

Mental health would be a major issue for the colony.

-John
 
John Baker said:
This can not possibly work simply because it is being conceived and planned by a bunch of foreigners who talk like they have a mouthful of marbles.

All my life, every movie, every comic book, every story, all had one thing in common. It was Americans who make the trip to Mars, not foreigners. It is doomed from the git go.

-John
Click to expand...

Columbus was a foreigner. :D
 
Threefingeredjack said:
They are obviously good at making pretty webpages. Logical planning? Not so much.
Look at their "Roadmap" Their timeline has a load of food arriving two years before a rover which will "explore the planet looking for a suitable place to live". I'm no rocket scientist, but I would think you would find out where your colony is going to be before you start plonking food down willy nilly.
Click to expand...

The air of unreality about their Web site is reinforced by the complete lack of explanation of how they expect the settlers to deal with a number of crucial issues involved in becoming self-sufficient enough to make a life-time commitment to live there, like how they're going to grow food, how they're going to generate oxygen, and how they're going to make spare parts when (not if) their equipment breaks down.

I get the impression that people planning Mars settlements underestimate the infrastructure that would be required to support self-sufficient colonies.

Will they really be able to blow the dust off their solar panels when the atmospheric pressure is less than one percent of Earth's?
 
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Here's what I have heard about Mars, make any corrections needed. Some will be incomplete, others a bit skewed but I think the gist of it is correct:

No air (its 95% CO2)
No water (those polar caps are not water, they are mostly dry ice, ie CO2)
No food (no water = no plant life = no animals)
Little gravity (1/3 earth's. I find gravity useful, even necessary at times.)
Much of it is impassable by land vehicles due to ruggedness of terrain
Dust storms that cover the entire planet at times for months.
Cold as heck. (mean temp: M63C....I guess you could hunt out a balmy place to set up your tent however)

Who can't get on board with all that?

I encourage explorers and adventurers; have some of that same spirit myself - but not quite to that degree!
 
If anyone wants a realistic look at what it would take to colonize Mars read Red Mars by Kim Robinson. It is a science fiction trilogy with real science and factual conditions. These folks on the Mars One site are snake oil salesmen, and they are not very good at it.
 
Many Science Fiction writers have explored (no pun) the concepts of the personality types needed for exploration and settlements of other planets. A common assumption is that the risk-takers will be prominent among those going off-world. The candy-butt weanies will remain behind in the safety of this earth as it slowly dies due to some combination of pollution, overpopulation, war, etc.
 
Long on promises, short on details.
 
Instead of sending Earthlings to Mars, why not just send some Martians home?

Dennis Rodman
Roseanne Barr
Donald Trump
Harry Reid
Tiny Tim
The cannibal guy in Miami
anyone else???
 
Two attempts have been made to create self-sustaining biospheres right here on Earth. Both ended in abject failure. Why anyone thinks they can do it on Mars is beyond me.
 
steingar said:
Two attempts have been made to create self-sustaining biospheres right here on Earth. Both ended in abject failure. Why anyone thinks they can do it on Mars is beyond me.
Click to expand...

"... there's been a time in the evolution of everything that works when it didn't work."


 
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