Maybe The Ultimate Reality Show

[AF6LJ]

There has been a lot of talk of late of sending a one way mission to Mars.
This may be the only a first mission would get there in my lifetime. When you think about it the way to cover the cost of such a mission would be to turn it into a reality show. The preparation, the astronaut interviews, training, the construction checkout launch voyage and landing would make for one hell of a reality show, and it may be the only way to pay for the trip in the private sector....

Every twenty four hours, a digest of the day's activity could be condensed into a hone hour installment. Those of us who are hams can follow along by monitoring communications for as far as we can during the trip. There could even be software written for hams who dedicate computers for reception and signal processing to process the signals.. After all that computer power sitting idle could be put to work....

So with that this showed up on Slashdot today....

Ask Bas Lansdorp About Going to Mars, One Way

NASA's been solicited ideas for exploring Mars, but Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp is already planning a different kind of trip than is likely to come from the U.S. government. Lansdorp's Mars One project has the goal of putting humans on Mars in 2022, with a twist that might dampen many people's hopes to be a Mars-exploring astronaut: the trip Lansdorp plans is one-way only. That means dramatically less fuel on board, because unlike typical Mars voyage plans, there would be no need (or ability) to carry the mechanism or the energy storage to return to Earth. If you (and three close companions) are willing to go be the first people to die on Mars, you'll also need to give up more than a pinch of privacy, because the Mars One plan to obtain the necessary funding is straightforward: create a media spectacle, and monetize it through advertising. (Note: If Elon Musk's optimistic sounding predictions are right, maybe one-way Marstronauts can get a return ticket, after all.) Many questions about the proposed journey are answered in the project's FAQ; check there before formulating questions. Ask Lansdorp about the practicalities and impracticalities of reaching Mars with as many questions as you'd like, but (lest ye be modded down) please only one question per post.

[KB1NXE]

Gee, Sue, you could call it "Big Bother".

[G8ADD]

You open your eyes to the ultimate reality show every morning!

73

Brian G8ADD

[WF7A]

The Truman Show on Mars!

Face it, once the group is on Mars for a while it'll be a boring watch so the producers will need to spice things up a little...like one of the astronauts murdering another then trying to figure out which of the other two did it.

[AF6LJ]

You open your eyes to the ultimate reality show every morning!

73

Brian G8ADD

In terms of my life you have no idea how true that has been.

The Truman Show on Mars!

Face it, once the group is on Mars for a while it'll be a boring watch so the producers will need to spice things up a little...like one of the astronauts murdering another then trying to figure out which of the other two did it.

I wouldn't do that howeve.....
What if they found a way to survive there on Mars??
What if....
a second ship with habitaat and a means to grow food....

This could be Jamestown 2027.

[N2EY]

There has been a lot of talk of late of sending a one way mission to Mars.

And that's all it will ever be - talk.

The weight saved in eliminating a return spacecraft would be more than replaced by additional supplies needed for the crew to live on Mars for even a few years. From the standpoint of both economics and engineering, there's no reason to send a one-way mission.

The ONLY possible reason to send people to Mars one-way is the possibility that they might bring back some form of Martian microbial life that would go wild in the Earth environment. But so far there is no clear evidence of life on Mars, so that's a real stretch.

It's nice to dream about missions to Mars, colonies on the Moon, etc., but the cost alone is so high and the ROI so low that it's just not going to happen any time soon. Particularly when unmanned probes can do so much for so little investment.

73 de Jim, N2EY

[N0SYA]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zadj-j27x-k

[KW4MW]

In terms of my life you have no idea how true that has been.



I wouldn't do that howeve.....
What if they found a way to survive there on Mars??
What if....
a second ship with habitaat and a means to grow food....

This could be Jamestown 2027.

or JONESTOWN!

[WB2WIK]

Hard to imagine anyone volunteering for a mission like that unless:

-They were crazy, in which case may not make good astronauts
-They were old and figured they'd die soon anyway, in which case they might not survive the trip

I'll volunteer for a mini-mission to the local MARS station, if there is one nearby.

[AF6LJ]

Hard to imagine anyone volunteering for a mission like that unless:

-They were crazy, in which case may not make good astronauts
-They were old and figured they'd die soon anyway, in which case they might not survive the trip

I'll volunteer for a mini-mission to the local MARS station, if there is one nearby.

I could see someone patriotic enough to embark on such a mission.

Lets put it this way Steve;
If I had a family, and the organization would hand over to my family enough money to keep them well heeled for the rest of their lives I would do it. And I don't think that is crazy.
Think about it for a minute, the ride of a lifetime, a chance to not only be the first to set foot on another world but to leave your family in good financial shape. Our astronauts were little more than test pilots of which less than a half dozen are remembered, the ones that are remembered are for the firsts.

Now you might think someone is crazy for wanting to go on such a one way mission, we use to call those people Explorers. Look at Ferdinand Magellan, the guy set out to sail around the world and he didn't complete his mission however his crew did, that takes vision.

Maybe America has lost it's spirit of exploration, maybe isn't just America but the rest of the world isn't half the man it use to be.