8 thoughts on “Mars Or Bust, Or Mars One, Busted?”

  1. Yes, Mars One has been busted for quite some time. It was never taken too seriously by hard core space exploration advocates, and it seemed to persist on the dreams of a well intentioned but uninformed crowd. The MIT study seemed to be a serious effort to euthanize the idea, & allow it to have a graceful death. I do admire that the plan did not shy away from risk, including the probable deaths of the participants. I view those 100 candidates as “space jihadists”. I am not inspired by suicidal spectacle Mars One would give the public. It would end very poorly.

    I also like the concept of Inspiration Mars. Much lower risk, and the inspiration side had some merits. I loved the concept of including a flyby of Venus, and was dissappointed that the Mars flyby was on the night side, with no great views. Budget and launch window constraints just did not work for it.

    What I’d really like to see is a effort that has the risk acceptance of Mars One, with something truly inspiring and worthwhile of sacrificing one’s life for. I’d like to see a Human crewed version of a “Grand Tour” of the solar system. Launch a crew ( 1 or 2 people ) on the fastest possible trajectory out of the solar system, with flybys of as many planets as possible, The mission goal is to see how deep into the solar system humans can sanely survive, and let the crew relate this voyage to all of us back here on Earth. I’m thinking Jupiter’s neighborhood is doable, and depending on the mass budget, maybe Saturn. Beyond that there probably needs to be a radio silence button in the hands of mission control.

    1. ” I loved the concept of including a flyby of Venus, and was disappointed that the Mars flyby was on the night side, ”

      When first read it, I thought meant night side of Venus- which might be interesting. But not sure what you see from night side of Mars.
      I suppose one would see lightning on either Venus or Mars. But more with Venus.

      1. Well, the whole scheme was revealed as a fraud when they said that they were going to fly by the night side of the sun.

  2. There seems to be two different groups objecting to Mars One: those who think they’re making too little money to ever achieve the things they say they want to, and those who think they’re making too much money for what they’re actually getting done.

    Of course, sometimes people seem to exist in both groups simultaneously, through the awesome power of doublethink.

    1. Of course, sometimes people seem to exist in both groups simultaneously,

      No, no, no, think quantum mechanics and Schrodinger’s cat.

    2. Of course, sometimes people seem to exist in both groups simultaneously, through the awesome power of doublethink.

      I hope that was sarcasm.

  3. NASA wanted a BFR in the worst way and that’s exactly how they’re going about getting one. Perhaps that isn’t fair, they were pushed by those famous rocket scientists and engineers in the Senate to buy this boondoggle. But so long as the money keeps coming, NASA is cool with it. Too bad there’s no money left over to actually build all of the other hardware that would be needed to go on a mission lasting longer than 3 weeks or to land anywhere. The only funded payload for the SLS is the Orion capsule. That’s about as absurd as limiting a cargo 747 to only carrying a couple pallets.

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