Mars One Finalist Announces That It's All a Scam
iflscience.com
iflscience.com
However, the end of Elmo Keep's piece on Medium (linked from the article, or at the end of this comment) leaves little room for doubt:
Mars One has almost no money. Mars One has no contracts with private aerospace suppliers who are building technology for future deep-space missions. Mars One has no TV production partner. Mars One has no publicly known investment partnerships with major brands. Mars One has no plans for a training facility where its candidates would prepare themselves. Mars One’s candidates have been vetted by a single person, in a 10-minute Skype interview.
https://medium.com/matter/mars-one-insider-quits-dangerously...
Was it not obvious from the outset that (at the very least) it was pie-in-the-sky fantasy thinking?
They came form nowhere, with an idea to run a reality show about sending people to Mars. At this point we're already talking about it needing to be the best-funded TV program (or movie) in history, because not only would the tech to do it be hideously expensive, most of it doesn't even exist yet.
Then, before having secured any of this massive amount of funding, they start inviting applicants?
Not a surprise.
Yes, yes it does. When you're relying on your mission crew to be at a particular life stage when you are ready to go. When they're suddenly 8 years later with families and commitments, it's going to be a whole different set of decisions.
That's assuming some of your dupes don't waste the best years of their lives waiting for you.
To people interested in this, you can also contact the Mars Society for their Mars analogue studies (Mars Desert Research Station). They take crews every 3 months.
There's also a cost associated with having the most visible discussion of human travel to Mars be a scam.
The risk is that as the scam collapses publicly, people will become disheartened about Mars exploration, and we'll have another setback.
https://medium.com/matter/mars-one-insider-quits-dangerously...
That dollar amount sounds pretty ludicrous. But if you could somehow bootstrap some faith that it was real, I suppose maybe they could generate global viewership that would translate to large revenues. In turn, those revenues could actually be used to fund a real launch.
shrug, of course people would only watch in big numbers if you could also supply some washed-up C-list celebrities and oddballs.
The UK soccer league makes 2 billion euros per year - assume that this reality show runs for three or four years and you got yourself a big fat bag of money, especially as this would be broadcasted and marketed across the globe (including the US, which have a high population but 0 interest in soccer).
I don't think the comparison with a hypothetical reality TV show is very meaningful.
Other than the part where organizations usually spend more than they bring in, I see few similarities.
At first glance I totally thought it was the start of a new ARG.
I'm still holding out hope for SpaceX's Martian ambitions!
When all the experts (outside of Mars One) are saying we're 20 years away minimum (just like with sustainable fusion and personal jet packs), who would sign up today?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flyboard
My point was, as a potential Mars crew member, who is going to commit to a minimum 20 year flight date without all ready being in a space program?