Category Archives: DIY space

Mars One hits a media storm

The announcement last week by Mars One of the down-select to 100 candidates for Mars missions drew a lot of media attention but then it all turned rather negative with news that the reality show planned for the selection of the final 24 has fallen through and that little progress is happening regarding plans to send an unmanned lander and an orbiter to Mars in 2018:

A USA Today editorial gives a typical skeptical view: Mars One destined for dreamland: Our view – USA Today.

Mason Peck, Cornell professor, former NASA chief technologist, and an unpaid adviser to Mars One, provides a more optimistic outlook : A clear and audacious goal: Opposing view – Mason Peck/USA Today

Defeatism, cynicism and mindless conservatism didn’t get us to the moon.

I am confident that we have the know-how and the ingenuity to plan a successful colony. However, there are risks. The people who choose to take this journey will face privation and danger to life and limb, but we have always been a species of explorers and problem-solvers.

Our ancestors left Africa, Asia and Europe and settled the globe. Those of us who care about the scientific, economic and cultural benefits of exploring space need to set a goal like Mars One and do what it takes to achieve it.

My parents’ generation took us from Sputnik to footsteps on the moon in a decade. Now our generation needs to get on with this next giant leap.

Defeatism, cynicism and mindless conservatism didn’t get us to the moon.

Gerard’t Hooft, is a Dutch theoretical physicist, a Nobel laureate, and an “ambassador” for Mars One, says the project leadership should be far more conservative in its time table: Mars One plan to colonise red planet unrealistic, says leading supporter – The Guardian.

Bas Lansdorp, Mars One’s CEO and co-founder, continues to hold that the unmanned lander and orbiter projects are doable by 2018 and that the collapse of the reality show is leading to a documentary produced by another company:  Red Planet or Bust? Private Mars One Mission Faces Earthly Challenges – NBC News.com

Lansdorp acknowledged that Mars One ended its collaboration with Endemol “because we could not reach agreement on the details of the contract.” But he said a TV documentary series was still in the works.

“We have contracted [with] a different production company that will produce the documentary series for us,” Lansdorp said. “They have already produced the trailer on our YouTube channel, and progress is good.”

Lansdorp said the name of the production company has not yet been released. He also emphasized that the TV project would be more along the lines of a behind-the-scenes documentary rather than a reality-TV competition to go to Mars.

“We’ve never planned a ‘reality TV series,'” Lansdorp wrote in his email. “A documentary series has always been our plan.”

As I stated the other day, Mars One is interesting if only for proving that there are plenty of well educated, talented people willing to go to Mars to stay.  And those people could actually get to Mars if SpaceX is successful in carrying out Elon Musk’s goals for drastically lowering the cost of getting to the Red Planet.

I expect that as ’t Hooft suggests the organization will eventually move the goals on its schedule several years to the right. It’s possible that such delays will burst the project’s bubble and enthusiasm for it will evaporate away. However, it’s possible that greater realism in its plans will instead lead to greater respect for its prospects.

Time Capsule To Mars (TC2M) – latest on student-led cubesat project

I mentioned last June the Time Capsule To Mars (TC2M) project, which involves eight universities and several aerospace companies. They plan to send a Cubesat to Mars with messages from millions of people encoded digitally in a quartz-based material that can hold digital info for very long times. The cubesat will be propelled to the Red Planet using an ion Electrospray Propulsion System (iEPS) developed at MIT.

The project recently passed a significant milestone with the completion of a technical review of systems requirements: Student-Led Mission To Mars Completes Systems Architecture Study at MIT- ExploreMars –

The multi-week effort at MIT, which took place during MIT’s “Independent Activities Period (IAP),” focused on developing the systems architecture and systems-level requirements that would allow for technical designs and construction to begin in earnest. The study, led by graduate students Dianna Velez and Iulia Jivanescu, successfully completed initial concepts for the architecture, its systems, and their interfaces. Jonathan Brent Parham, Associate Technical Staff at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory, served as a consultant on the study.

“The past three weeks have set the direction for the rest of the mission,” said Emily Briere, Mission Director and senior at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering. “By developing systems-level requirements and functional requirements for each subsystem, we’ve defined a clear path forward that our university teams can follow. The energy and enthusiasm for TC2M coming out of this study is overwhelming. This team is willing itself Marsward.”

The $25 million TC2M mission will be funded in large part by people around the world who upload personal digital media in the form of images, text, audio and video clips for a small fee. For those in the developing world, digital media uploads to the capsule will be offered free of charge and underwritten by corporate sponsors and individual philanthropists.

You can put in your donation here.

Mars One announces round three astronaut candidates – The Mars 100

Mars One reduces their candidate settlers to 100:

The Mars 100: Mars One Announces Round Three Astronaut Candidates

Amersfoort, 16th February 2015 – From the initial 202,586 applicants, only 100 hopefuls have been selected to proceed to the next round of the Mars One Astronaut Selection Process. These candidates are one step closer to becoming the first humans on Mars.

“The large cut in candidates is an important step towards finding out who has the right stuff to go to Mars,” said Bas Lansdorp, Co-founder & CEO of Mars One. “These aspiring martians provide the world with a glimpse into who the modern day explorers will be.”

The Mars 100 Round Three candidates were selected from a pool of 660 candidates after participating in personal online interviews with Norbert Kraft, M.D., Chief Medical Officer. During the interviews the candidates had a chance to show their understanding of the risks involved, team spirit and their motivation to be part of this life changing expedition. “We were impressed with how many strong candidates participated in the interview round, which made it a very difficult selection” said Dr. Norbert Kraft.

Who are the Mars 100 Round Three candidates? There are 50 men and 50 women who successfully passed the second round. The candidates come from all around the world, namely 39 from the Americas, 31 from Europe, 16 from Asia, 7 from Africa, and 7 from Oceania. The complete list of Mars One candidates can be found here: Mars One Round Three Candidates.

What further challenges will these candidates face? The following selection rounds will focus on composing teams that can endure all the hardships of a permanent settlement on Mars. The candidates will receive their first shot at training in the copy of the Mars Outpost on Earth and will demonstrate their suitability to perform well in a team. “Being one of the best individual candidates does not automatically make you the greatest team player, so I look forward to seeing how the candidates progress and work together in the upcoming challenges.” said Dr. Norbert Kraft.

Candidates that were not selected to continue will have a chance to reapply in a new application round that will open in 2015. New application opportunities will follow in order to train candidates that can replace eliminated teams and join the crews of settlers that will leave Earth to live on Mars.

More Information

About Mars One

Mars One is a not-for-profit foundation that will establish permanent human life on Mars. Human settlement on Mars is possible today with existing technologies. Mars One’s mission plan integrates components that are well tested and readily available from industry leaders worldwide. The first footprint on Mars and lives of the crew thereon will captivate and inspire generations. It is this public interest that will help finance this human mission to Mars.

Mars One candidates wait for next down-select

The Mars One will soon reduce its candidate list down to 100. The project may never reach the Red Planet but at least it has proven that there are plenty of people willing to move to there if given the opportunity and even if they can’t come back:

Update: Here is a video about three candidates:

Crew of seven simulating a Mars mission in the Utah desert

A new crew is carrying out the latest two-week simulation of a mission on the Red Planet at the Mars Society‘s Mars Desert Research Station in Utah: Mock Mars Mission Starts Saturday in Utah Desert – Space.com.

The seven members of this MDRS crew are all candidates for missions in the Mars One project.

Here are the bios for Crew 149. And their Mission Statement.

Their first Crew Report is posted at 208-Commanders Report.

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