Reality TV shows proposed for Mars One and Mars Society projects

The plan by the Mars-One project has always held media, especially reality TV shows, as the key to funding their effort to put a human settlement on the Red Planet. It appears that one television production company, Lions Gate is the first to give it a try: Mission To Colonize Mars To Become Reality TV Series – Deadline.com.

For the next several years, the series would be covering the different stages of preparation for the mission, starting with participant selection and the finalists — called candidates — undergoing an 8-year training protocol. The series’ cast will evolve as candidates in the mission drop out and new ones are brought in. “This is a social experiment that focuses on the people that would sign for something like this — they have to agree to participate and be willing to go on a one-way mission, knowing that if you go, you can never come back,” said Roy Bank, who is producing the project as part of his overall deal with Lionsgate TV.

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Robert Zubrin, co-founder of the Mars Society, was recently on The Space Show and he discussed Mars Arctic 365. MA365 involves putting a “crew” on the Mars Society’s Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) at Devon Island for a full year rather than just a few months as in previous expeditions. Dr. Robert Zubrin, Thursday, 3-13-14 – Thespaceshow’s Blog

There might be a reality TV show based on this project as well: Mars Exploration Reality Series Shopped By Thinkfactory Media – Deadline.com.

The production company ThinkFactory Media has been developing

an unscripted TV project that would document Mars Society’s year-long Mars simulation in the Canadian Arctic. Thinkfactory had been working with the Mars Society on the project for the past four months. It took the series out to networks last week, with two outlets interested and currently in discussion with the production company. Tentatively titled Mission To Mars, the series is one of two Mars colonization reality projects in the marketplace, along with Lionsgate TV’s untitled series done in collaboration with Lansdorp’s Mars One, the international Mars mission backed by Dutch billionaire entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp.