trollcatman wrote:
Since the Mars mission is a one-way trip it is essentially a suicide mission. I thought the True Believers liked suicide missions?
Thats a common misconception. They are sending components for a proto-settlement that will (according to Mars One) enable not only the colonists but also their descendents to survive indefinitely. So yup, I presume they plan to have marriages and children while they are there.
What worries me the most, is twofold. One - they've not been forthcoming with how they intend to get people there. This is far from a routine spaceflight. You can't just go there in a conventional spacecraft as we understand them. The longest anyone has been in space is 6 months, a one way trip to Mars, with our current technology, even without the weight luggage of a manned trip is 8 months. Thats before you consider the hazard of solar radiation in deep space.
Two- My understanding is that as a private rather than state sponsored project, its going to have a 'reality TV' emphasis rather than a scientific one. They plan to send average members of the general public, people who simply don't have the physical endurance of traditional astronauts or have been through the rigorous screening of conventional space programs. Consider that they will be enduring the most dangerous flight ever.
My prediction is that the travellers will die of radiation sickness and muscle atrophy before they get anywhere near Mars. This will be the 21st Century's Hindenburg or Titanic.
I'm not sure about the radiation but there are a number of problems with the Mars One proposal. First of all, there's the problem with forward contamination of Mars with micro-organisms from Earth. I don't know how they are going to conform to international standards and Space Law that are there to prevent that from happening. NASA for example, is normally able to sterilise it's unmanned space-probes so that no life from Earth is able to contaminate the other planets or moons in the solar system that they get sent to but a manned mission would make this more difficult since the human body alone has hundreds of different species of bacteria in it. The reason why this is important is because such bacteria could very well survive on Mars and even change it's environment so as to make it uninhabitable for humans in the future, not to mention probably kill off any existing life on Mars (whether there are native micro-organisms living on Mars is still an open question). The other problem is the safety of crew members and I don't know if the can meet those standards. Strangely, even though it's a bit silly for a muslim cleric issuing a fatwa to prevent muslims from going to Mars, this cleric's concerns about the safety of the Mars One program are not unfounded. I also agree that if there is a manned Mars mission, the motivation should be scientific rather than just making good "reality TV". I can tolerate "Survivor" even though I won't watch it but space travel is not as trivial as setting people loose in the wilderness (which is still on Earth by the way).
05 Nov 2013, 4:54 pm
