Mars One Round Two

Number04 · 2013-12-31 16:53:43

Emails have been sent to those 1058 people that made it to Round 2 of the selection. Thoughts on this? Communication has been very limited from Mars One; a mission based on sponsorship and media. We may see a ramp up in 2014.

Link to Mars One

JoshNH4H · 2014-01-01 01:26:50

I don't think that their chances of success are very high, and the fact that you had to pay money to apply to work for them makes it seem rather scam-like. I'm not suggesting that it is a scam, I think they legitimately do hope to make it work, but I doubt that it will come to fruition.

GW Johnson · 2014-01-01 11:09:34

I think they're raising money any way they can. I don't think they yet know how they're going to pull this off. I question the wisdom of a one-way colony-planting trip before we have attempted any experiments at trying to live off the land there. That makes it more-or-less a suicide mission, unless somebody gets there first with a base or automated equipment to try out all the technologies that might (I repeat "might") enable humans to survive there. Note also that I said "survive", not "thrive". There is a huge difference. A colony must be able to thrive, sooner or later, or it cannot be a success.

GW

JoshNH4H · 2014-01-01 11:11:04

The quantities of money seem kind of underwhelming, though. But I suppose we will see.

louis · 2014-01-01 15:00:17

GW Johnson wrote:

I think they're raising money any way they can. I don't think they yet know how they're going to pull this off. I question the wisdom of a one-way colony-planting trip before we have attempted any experiments at trying to live off the land there. That makes it more-or-less a suicide mission, unless somebody gets there first with a base or automated equipment to try out all the technologies that might (I repeat "might") enable humans to survive there. Note also that I said "survive", not "thrive". There is a huge difference. A colony must be able to thrive, sooner or later, or it cannot be a success.
GW

When you read into it, it's not really a one way mission - that was a bit of media hype that worked.

louis · 2014-01-01 15:07:44

JoshNH4H wrote:

The quantities of money seem kind of underwhelming, though. But I suppose we will see.

I think the issue is whether they can get TV deals in place all around the planet. You have to think of it as a world wide TV reality franchise.

I have my doubts as well. But it's not unusual for a $100 million to be spent on a TV series. Potentially around the globe this may work - areas which are less cynical that W Europe perhaps...places like China, India, South Africa, Brazil, Indonesia - may take to the idea.

One can see how it would work in theory - reality selection series over 5 years...with a worldwide audience of perhaps 300 million - could easily generate a billion dollars over say 100 episodes.

Obviously at some stage they would be looking for billionaire backers. They really need to be able to get to $100million I think to be able to attract that sort of money. It's possible Space X might give them some free rides to LEO.

SpaceNut · 2014-01-01 16:37:11

Well the TV images could pay off big but if or when any crew member comes down ill or dies them it will change the direction that we all will percieve success or not.

Tom Kalbfus · 2014-01-01 16:59:16

success could be measured one way whether someone dies at the colony. Remember half the population of the Plymouth colony in Massachusetts died the first year. I think one of the reasons so many died that first year was the lack of knowledge by the colonists over what they were getting into. I think the first colonists will have better knowledge of what they're getting into that the Pilgrims did.

Last edited by Tom Kalbfus (2014-01-01 17:00:01)

JoshNH4H · 2014-01-02 00:20:11

Louis--

Firstly, can you email me? I tried the one you gave me a while ago but got a DNS error.

Secondly, regarding TV revenue:

I don't doubt that it can be an important source, but it has to follow the establishment of a legitimate, credible plan and some kind of funding.

I still find it a bit hard to see how breakeven is going to happen

Tom Kalbfus · 2014-01-02 04:07:44

The way it happens is that the cost of getting into space gets cheaper, various companies are working on that. Space travel used to be something only done by government, that is changing. If space travel gets cheap enough, we can have it funded by reality shows. I think we could have a Mars lottery, have a number of prospective colonists by lottery tickets for 120 slots. Now if each trip costs $4,000,000 that would require 120,000,000 lottery tickets to be sold at $4 each. Most people will never go, but in addition to buying a ticket and hoping to someday go to Mars, they also get to see on television people who are actually doing it, I think that's a great deal!

Number04 · 2014-01-02 08:45:02

Funding aside, what do you see the next steps as being?
The momentum created by Mars One could be used to solidify plans and boost public awareness. There is a lot of questions surrounding the project and we have an opportunity to answer those questions in the minds of the public with the work that's been already done.

JoshNH4H · 2014-01-02 11:24:17

I really liked their idea to land an ISRU testing bot on Mars as a way of establishing their credibility. After that, it's develop and test, develop and test until they can send people to Mars.

GW Johnson · 2014-01-02 14:28:24

Sending robot ISRU experiments is a right thing to do, but not the only thing to do. Has anybody associated with that project said how they’re going to get real ground truth concerning fresh water supplies? Colony death is certain and sooner without it.

GW

Quaoar · 2014-01-06 10:54:24

JoshNH4H wrote:

I don't think that their chances of success are very high, and the fact that you had to pay money to apply to work for them makes it seem rather scam-like. I'm not suggesting that it is a scam, I think they legitimately do hope to make it work, but I doubt that it will come to fruition.

How much money an aspirant colonist has to pay?

Tom Kalbfus · 2014-01-06 13:37:52

Quaoar wrote:

JoshNH4H wrote:
I don't think that their chances of success are very high, and the fact that you had to pay money to apply to work for them makes it seem rather scam-like. I'm not suggesting that it is a scam, I think they legitimately do hope to make it work, but I doubt that it will come to fruition.
How much money an aspirant colonist has to pay?

You can fund it from both ends. At one end you can sell a chance to become part of the colony through a Mars Lottery, at the other end, you could sell it as a reality show, people will pay to watch, either directly or through advertising. If we can make what colonists do interesting, we can sell it to a viewing audience, we have to get the costs down and the revenues up to accomplish this, if we can find a point where these two meet, we can start a colony!

I'd say stage one of the selection process should be a lottery, if we are to have 120 colonists, then we should have 600 winners of the lottery and then we run the winners through a selection process based on what would be useful to the survival of the colony, what skills and abilities would be needed, the training could also be part of the reality show, we could sell viewing rights either for direct viewing or to advertisers, generating revenue throughout the whole process. The prospective astronauts would go through a "Right Stuff" training process, some will drop out, but eventually we'll have 120 colonists and hopefully enough revenue at the end of this process to send them to Mars and set up the colony on the surface.

Last edited by Tom Kalbfus (2014-01-06 13:42:03)

martienne · 2014-03-30 07:01:25

I think it's great that people are at least trying!
I wouldn't pay for any other content, hardly, but for this I'd pay big. I don't watch reality TV, but this I'd watch.

So say that it's going to be a reality show on the main network across most of the world. And streaming online.

If they could come up with a concrete funding plans, for example sell "shares" in the project for example, guaranteeing your name to be immortalized as a sponsor of the first manned Mars mission for all eternity.

Then up with a big counter that everybody can display on their social media pages, blogs or whatever.
Big celebration of every milestone met, to keep the momentum going.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For example:
10 Diamond private (individual) sponsors who commit with 1,000,000 EUR each
100 Platinum private (individual) sponsors who commit with 100,000 EUR each
1000 Gold private (individual) sponsors who commit with 10,000 EUR each
10,000 Silver private (individual) sponsors who commit with 1000 EUR each
100,000 Bronze private (individual) sponsors who commit with 100 EUR each

+ 1,000,000 donations of 10 EUR
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So this would be the fundraising goal for regular individuals.
Now hit social media, traditional media and every space geek in the known universe!

The Bitcoin millionaire community probably overlaps quite a fair bit with the space loving community.
What could be a worthier cause to use Bitcoin wealth for, for those who have more than they need, and in light of the fact that nobody quite knows whether it's a bubble or real. Also the IT community probably overlaps as well. Getting 10 IT leaders to cough up a million each is doable, I think.

Then tell them that as soon as things are up & running on Mars, a memorial will be raised with everybody's name listed from the main sponsor groups. And it would be there for all times, as one of the first proper buildings on Mars. Their name, their picture and a bio about them. They'd be immortal on Mars!

There is a place a bit like what I thought in Washington DC, there are all the various "Heroes" monuments in the ex USSR which list the names of heroes whether they are dead or alive, and often with a depiction of the person.
Every town in the UK has memorials. So, something along those lines. A combination of the best we have in terms of memorials on Earth, to really honour those who are willing to shell out to make Mars happen.

First on the list, would be the first to donate. Maybe a painting of them or something. This would make good media, so get the momentum going.

Whatever is likely to get people enthusiastic about being a sponsor. Perhaps some prefer to remain completely anonymous, or would rather buy the right to have the first Martian hospital named after them!

Then once the social media campaign goes viral, corporations will want to tag on.
So a similar scheme for them but with larger sums, to make up the difference.
But less recognition - I would be against Mars turning into a corporate play pen. Mars must not be yet another planet that is destroyed by greed. Yet the project needs sponsors, but getting the momentum going among real people first is crucial I think.

Last edited by martienne (2014-03-30 07:11:48)

SpaceNut · 2014-05-26 15:55:25

http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/space … y-mission/

The article title and what has been written misses the point...

Any mission to mars leads the way in planning, doing with what you have and so much more.

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#1 2013-12-31 16:53:43

Mars One Round Two

#2 2014-01-01 01:26:50

Re: Mars One Round Two

#3 2014-01-01 11:09:34

Re: Mars One Round Two

#4 2014-01-01 11:11:04

Re: Mars One Round Two

#5 2014-01-01 15:00:17

Re: Mars One Round Two

#6 2014-01-01 15:07:44

Re: Mars One Round Two

#7 2014-01-01 16:37:11

Re: Mars One Round Two

#8 2014-01-01 16:59:16

Re: Mars One Round Two

#9 2014-01-02 00:20:11

Re: Mars One Round Two

#10 2014-01-02 04:07:44

Re: Mars One Round Two

#11 2014-01-02 08:45:02

Re: Mars One Round Two

#12 2014-01-02 11:24:17

Re: Mars One Round Two

#13 2014-01-02 14:28:24

Re: Mars One Round Two

#14 2014-01-06 10:54:24

Re: Mars One Round Two

#15 2014-01-06 13:37:52

Re: Mars One Round Two

#16 2014-03-30 07:01:25

Re: Mars One Round Two

#17 2014-05-26 15:55:25

Re: Mars One Round Two

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