Category Archives: Living in Space

Mars One partners with Endemol to broadcast crew selection and training

An announcement from Mars One:

Mars One Teams with Endemol for Worldwide TV Event 

  • Endemol-owned Darlow Smithson Productions (DSP) will exclusively follow the selection and training of the world’s first one way astronauts to Mars
  • Candidates chosen from over 200,000 applicants will be tested to the extreme in one of the most extraordinary and challenging job interviews ever seen
  • The winners will be the first to make the 300 million-mile journey to establish permanent human life on the red planet
  • DSP’s landmark production will be broadcast around the world and further announcements are due to follow soon

London / Amersfoort, 2nd of June 2014. Mars One and multi-award winning factual producer DSP (an Endemol company) today announced they have entered an international partnership to screen the mission to send the world’s first one way astronauts to Mars.

DSP becomes the exclusive worldwide production partner for the Mars One astronaut selection and training program, which will see people from all walks of life undergo one of the most extraordinary and challenging assessment processes ever seen.

705 highly motivated candidates, shortlisted from over 200,000 who applied to become future inhabitants of Mars, will be tested to the extreme as part of an elite training program run by a panel comprised of pre-eminent scientists, adventurers and astronauts.

In order to qualify for the mission, each individual must demonstrate that they have acquired the intricate knowledge and skills as well as the high levels of psychological and physical performance needed for the most long distance voyage humankind has ever embarked upon.

DSP will document the aspiring pioneers’ astonishing journeys every step of the way in the lead up to the mission, which will see the winners become the first to make the 300 million-mile, one way trip to establish permanent human life on the red planet.

Human settlement on Mars is possible today with existing technologies and Mars One’s mission plan integrates components that are well tested and readily available from industry leaders worldwide. However, no return trip can be made. Instead Mars One will send additional crews every two years to further build the pioneering colony.

With the astronaut selection process already underway, the first instalments of DSP’s landmark production are expected to begin broadcasting around the world in early 2015. Further details and announcements are due to follow soon.

Bas Lansdorp, Co-founder & CEO of Mars One said, “Bringing the story of our incredibly brave aspiring Martians to the world now officially begins with what we feel is a perfect partnership. Our team felt all along that we needed a partner whose strength lies in factual storytelling to an international audience. DSP will provide that to Mars One, while allowing our selection committee to maintain control of the astronaut selection process. This really is a perfect fit for both of us!”

Iain Riddick, DSP’s Head of Special Projects and Digital Media, comments: “It is a great privilege for DSP to be chosen to exclusively follow the incredible journeys of those who will make humankind’s first footprint on Mars. This has to be the world’s toughest job interview for what is without question a world-first opportunity and the human stories that emerge will captivate and inspire generations across the globe.”

About DSP

DSP has a long established reputation for producing world class television programmes and theatrical documentaries for UK, US and international broadcasters. The company has achieved global industry recognition for its ground breaking output and has received more than 40 industry awards, including accolades from BAFTA, The Peabody Awards, The Royal Television Society and the US Academy of Television, Arts and Sciences.

Credits include: The Mill (Channel 4), Richard III: The King in the Car Park (Channel 4); How to Build a Bionic Man (Channel 4 and Smithsonian Channel); Earth From Space (NOVA and Discovery Canada), ‘Hawking’ (PBS and Channel 4); Dead or Alive (National Geographic Channels International Wild); Nazi Megastructures (National Geographic Channel) and Neil Armstrong: First Man on the Moon (BBC Two).

DSP is part of Endemol, a world leading content creator with a global network of operations in over 30 countries including the USA, the UK, Spain, Italy, France, Germany and the Netherlands, as well as Latin America, India, Israel, South Africa and Australia.

For more information visit www.dsp.tv

About Mars One

Mars One is a not-for-profit foundation that will establish a permanent human settlement on Mars. Mars One has developed a realistic mission plan, built upon existing technologies available from proven aerospace suppliers worldwide. Several of these suppliers are already under contract of Mars One, including Lockheed Martin and Paragon Space Development. Work on the first unmanned mission, scheduled for launch in 2018, has already started.

Mars One plans to land the first crew on Mars by 2025. The ambitious schedule is possible because the crews departing to Mars go there to stay. Instead of trying to bring crews back to Earth, Mars One will send additional crews every two years, establishing the first human settlement outside of the Earth. Mars One will select and train crews of astronauts. The search for astronauts began in April 2013. More than 200,000 applied for this first call for future Mars inhabitants.

The first footprint on Mars and lives of the crew thereon, literally the Next Giant Leap for Mankind, will inspire generations to come and will be the world’s biggest media event.

For more information visit www.mars-one.com

About Endemol

Endemol is a world leading creator, producer and distributor of multiplatform entertainment. The company annually produces over 15,000 hours of programming across scripted and non-scripted genres, including drama, reality TV, comedy, game shows, entertainment, factual and kids programming.

Endemol comprises a global network of around 90 companies in more than 30 countries and works with over 300 broadcasters, digital platforms and licensees worldwide. The business covers development, production, marketing, distribution, franchise management and multi-platform initiatives including digital video, gaming and apps.

Endemol’s credits in non-scripted entertainment include worldwide hits such as Big Brother, Deal or No Deal, Wipeout, The Money Drop and Your Face Sounds Familiar. The company’s growing portfolio of award winning drama and comedy includes international titles such as Ripper Street, Peaky Blinders, Hell on Wheels, Hot in Cleveland, Kirstie, Leverage, Home and Away, Death Comes to Pemberley, Black Mirror, The Crimson Field and The Fall.

As one of the world’s largest independent content distributors, Endemol launches over 80 new entertainment formats a year on broadcast networks across the globe and distributes more than 33,000 hours of finished programming. The company’s creative teams around the world are continuously developing new ideas that are shared across the Endemol network.

Endemol is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

For more information visit www.endemol.com

– See more at: http://www.mars-one.com/news/press-releases/mars-one-teams-with-endemol-for-worldwide-tv-event#sthash.yu6xriyo.dpuf

Sci-Tech: Suspended animation for medical apps and space travel

We don’t yet have self-aware robots or low cost transportation to orbit but we do have iPhones and Google search. The latter two are just as sci-fi as the former two technologies for someone who grew up in the 1960s. The future really is hard to predict.  Some tech that seemed almost in hand keeps getting pushed further into the future while occasionally something that seemed extremely far-fetched turns out to be well within reach.

For example, suspended animation, also referred to as induced hibernation or extended torpor (see post here), has been a common plot device in science fiction for ages. It played a prominent role, for example, in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey where several members of a crew going to Jupiter were put into hibernation to reduce the amount of food, oxygen, etc, needed for the trip. Until recently, I thought this was no closer to reality than Hal but  it looks like it might nearly be in hand  : Suspended Animation Human Trials About to Begin – IFLScience.

It shouldn’t in fact be too surprising. Maintaining patients in unconscious states for days is done routinely in hospitals. Coma patients can be kept alive for months, even years. Occasionally there are reports of someone awakening from a long term coma and continuing with a normal life. So the mechanics of maintaining the vital systems appears to be well understood.

The induced torpor research is aiming to go the next step and lower body temperature to slow metabolic processes even further than in a comatose state. As mentioned in the above article, doctors are using Therapeutic Hypothermia (TH) already to deal with some traumatic injuries.

In the video below (starting at 55:30)  from the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Symposium held back in February (see post here), John Bradford of SpaceWorks Engineering and his collaborator Douglas Talk discussed such issues in a presentation about their proposed Torpor Inducing Transfer Habitat For Human Stasis To Mars. Here are their slides (pdf) and see also this infographic (pdf).

As with Discovery-1 expedition, they are proposing to place a crew

in inactive, low-metabolic Torpor state for mission transfer phases by leveraging evolving medical advances in Therapeutic Hypothermia  and Total Parenteral Nutrition.

The benefits of this include:

Reduction in mission consumables due to inactive crew
– Reduced pressurized volume required for living quarters
– Eliminate many ancillary crew accommodations (food galley, eating  supplies, cooking, exercise equipment, entertainment, etc.)
– Minimize psychological challenges for crew

Watch live streaming video from niac2014 at livestream.com

John Bradford is posting updates on progress with their study at the blog Space Torpor. In a recent post he showed images of a proposed Artificial-Gravity Inducing Torpor Habitat!

artG-torporHab-cut-away[1]

FISO: On-Orbit Servicing + To Mars via 6 not-so-easy pieces + Solar sails

Catching up with recent presentations to the Future In-Space Operations (FISO) study group. The presentation materials are  posted in the FISO Working Group Presentations Archive for the following 3 talks.

On-Orbit Servicing: Telepresence and the DEOS Simulator, Jordi Artigas , DLR  – May.7.14

  • An overview of the German space agency (DLR)  in-space robotics projects, past and present. An intro to telepresence
  • Artigas_5-7-14.pdf – slides
  • Artigas.mp3 – audio

A timeline of DLR space robotics projects:

Timeline

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Mission to Mars Using Six ‘Not So Easy’ Pieces, Mike Raftery, Boeing- May 14, 2014

SEPatMars

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Solar Sail Description and Space Weather (and Other) Mission Capabilities, Bruce Campbell , (formally ATK, GSFC) – May 21, 2014

  • An overview of the basics of solar sails, types of solar sails, a review of previous, current and future projects
  • Campbell_5-21-14.pdf – slides
  • Campbell.mp3 – audio

SizeComparisons

Video: Microgravity science and commercialization

In this recent SETI Institute seminar video,  Ioana Cozmuta of NASA Ames gives an overview of microgravity science and discusses research in biotech, materials processing, and other areas that offer an excellent potential for generating commercial products: Microgravity, the future of innovation – SETI Institute http://youtu.be/kT9pEFE9pBA