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The Adventure of Many Lifetimes: The 100 Year Plan
For thousands of years,
the human race has spread out across the Earth, scaling mountains and plying the oceans, planting crops and building highways, raising skyscrapers and atmospheric CO2 levels, and observing, with tremendous and unflagging enthusiasm, the Biblical injunction to be fruitful and multiply across our world's every last nook, cranny and subdivision.
An invitation.
Earth has issues, and it's time humanity got started on a Plan B. So, starting in 2014, Virgin founder Richard Branson and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will be leading hundreds of users on one of the grandest adventures in human history: Project Virgle, the first permanent human colony on Mars.
That's pretty hard on the system for April 1st.
Come on to the Future
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I hope this isn't an April fool because it's saying colonizing Mars is a joke. If that's the case encourage everyone to dump Google and Branson products.
[color=darkred]Let's go to Mars and far beyond - triple NASA's budget ![/color] [url=irc://freenode#space] #space channel !! [/url] [url=http://www.youtube.com/user/c1cl0ps] - videos !!![/url]
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The original contingent of Virgle Pioneers will be selected by numerous criteria, including an online questionnaire, video submission, personal accomplishments, expertise in scientific, artistic, sociological and/or political fields of endeavor, and inadequate Google and Virgin personal performance reviews.
Don't let Publisur see this one:
2014: Low Earth Orbit
If a journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step, then our 550-million-mile journey to Mars will begin with 550,000 1/500th-of-a-mile steps, as the LSE3, a multi-stage heavy lifter now under construction using the World War II-era Liberty Ship philosophy ("Make them fast, ugly and in large numbers"), launches our staging components into low earth orbit.
Come on to the Future
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Disappointing that Branson, with his own space airline taking off next year, would have a laugh at the expense of Mars's credibility.
EDIT:
Having read the site, I can't make up my mind whether they're mocking the Mars Society or not. They've clearly read a lot of Zubrin and the society's material. I suppose the bit at the end ("Virgle isn't real... yet") is a little hopeful. And hopefully any publicity's good publicity.
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-- oh, all right. Fine. April Fool's. Ha, ha, ha. It isn't real. There. Are you happy? Does it please you to drag us out of our lovely little fantasy world, to crush all our hopes and dreams? Is that really what you need to hear? Fine, you've heard it. Virgle isn't real.
Yet.
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This is quite odd indeed.
It seems wrong, i cant help feeling in a negative way towards that proyect, im not ready for a corporate body taking a nations role (not getting there but managing the colony)
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At least we know that the rich guys we are always talking about, wishing they would DO something, are thinking about it. Even if it is an elaborate joke today...we may not be laughing "tomorrow".
Are they as passionate as they were saying they were? If so it could be a great thing.
Just look how much press this is going to give Google, Virgin and the Mars plan.
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Honestly, this is a good thing. Think about it for just a second: between the Google Lunar X-Prize and Virgin Galactic, it's obvious these guys care about space. The rather elaborate nature of the joke shows that they did their research (heck, their plans look similar to Mars Direct in a lot of ways). Even if it is a joke, it's going to give the concept huge publicity, and probably get a lot of people thinking about it seriously.
Meanwhile, the Mars Society is going to be reaching out to both companies, thanking them for acknowledging us and offering to help if the idea ever becomes real. Who knows? Maybe we'll catch their attention long enough to be able to do some serious collaborative work.
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Meanwhile, the Mars Society is going to be reaching out to both companies, thanking them for acknowledging us and offering to help if the idea ever becomes real. Who knows? Maybe we'll catch their attention long enough to be able to do some serious collaborative work.
What happened to the Mars Society's balls? Send them an email like this:
Dear Dick and Sergey,
You can't weasel your way out of this "joke" by saying you stopped accepting applications midnight PST, April 1st, 2008. Everyone knows an April fool expires at midday local time. The Mars Society will not grant landing rights to Virgle flights or permit Google connectivity to the Mars MAN (Mars Area Network) until a full apology is issued.
Yours,
blah blah.
[color=darkred]Let's go to Mars and far beyond - triple NASA's budget ![/color] [url=irc://freenode#space] #space channel !! [/url] [url=http://www.youtube.com/user/c1cl0ps] - videos !!![/url]
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LOL!
Use what is abundant and build to last
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Ha ha! It’s a joke. Here’s what they did last year.
I wouldn't be surprised if Google and Virgin team up to do something space-related. But a 100-year plan for two corporations like them is very, very silly.
I ________ algae (as food).
[x] like
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[ ] would be willing, if absolutely necessary, to endure
Artist for [url=www.red-oasis.com]Red Oasis[/url]
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Still this year the joke was a bit more sophisticated and with the help of you tube we could see how baddly people fell for it.
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