Mars: One Way Ticket To The Red Planet

slydessertfox · Jun 6, 2012

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/upshot/mars-one-one-way-ticket-red-planet-192011042.html

Here's their actual site.

It sounds like a science-fiction fantasy, but the company Mars One says it's for real—and that it will really establish a settlement on the planet Mars by 2023.
The privately financed Dutch company has a plan. All it needs is a lot of cash, equipment and four Mars-bound astronauts who are willing to take a one-way trip to the red planet.
The idea is to first send rovers, which will stake out a good site for a settlement and then build out living units. In 2022, the crew will take a "transit habitat" for the seven-month trip to Mars and settle in to their new home. The intention is that the crew will live on the planet for the rest of their lives. Every two years after that, another group will join the settlement to populate the colony.
Mars One co-founder Bas Lansdorp has a very modern approach to funding the project: media exposure. "We will finance this mission by creating the biggest media event ever around it." He said in a company video, adding, "Everybody in the world can see everything that will happen in the preparations and on Mars."
Think of it as a "Big Brother" for outer space. Lansdorp explained to Yahoo! News, "This would be 'real' reality TV -- adventure is automatically included, we don't have to add fake challenges." He added, "By sending a new crew every two years, Mars will have a real, growing settlement of humans -- who would not like to follow that major event in human history?"
Who, indeed? The other-worldly idea has certainly intrigued the Web. The Mars One video has received over 232,000 views on YouTube since it launched less than a week ago.
Beyond entertainment, some scientists certainly seem intrigued by the possibility of interplanetary travel. Theoretical physicist and Nobel Prize winner Gerard 't Hooft, a "mission ambassador" for Mars One, endorses the plan. He says, "This project seems to be the only way to fulfill humanity's dream to explore outer space. It's going to be an exciting experiment."
Next year, according to its website, the company will begin an astronaut selection process. Those who have the right stuff will then undergo a decade of preparation. And, we assume, the Mars travelers will be ready for their out-of-this-world close-up.

Thanks to @Vassilli1942 for letting me post this here.

What do you guys think about this. I think it would be amazing if they could pull this off. What do you think?

0bserver92 · Jun 6, 2012

These guys sound so awesome.

StephenColbert27 · Jun 7, 2012

Good luck, I guess. But I wouldn't want to be any of those guys, to tell the truth.

RickPerryLover · Jun 7, 2012

I would like to be on the second voyage.

Melanthropist · Jun 7, 2012

I'd love to go on the first trip over there.

StephenColbert27 · Jun 7, 2012

RickPerryLover said: ↑

I would like to be on the second voyage.

I don't think there's as much glory and fame for the second voyage.

RickPerryLover · Jun 7, 2012

StephenColbert27 said: ↑

I don't think there's as much glory and fame for the second voyage.

I don't care. I want to see how the first guys fare.

StephenColbert27 · Jun 7, 2012

RickPerryLover said: ↑

I don't care. I want to see how the first guys fare.

Makes sense.

slydessertfox · Jun 7, 2012

RickPerryLover said: ↑

I would like to be on the second voyage.

Or the third, just to be safe.

Lenin Cat · Jun 7, 2012

I'm not ending my life on planet earth to spend the rest of my life on mars, I know people here and it wont be easy to get back to earth.

slydessertfox · Jun 7, 2012

Lenin Cat said: ↑

I'm not ending my life on planet earth to spend the rest of my life on mars, I know people here and it wont be easy to get back to earth.

Apparently some people want to do it. I know the average person like you and me won't, but hey, if they find people willing, which there always will be, then great.

StephenColbert27 · Jun 7, 2012

Doesn't it take a year just to get to Mars?

Vassilli1942 · Jun 7, 2012

StephenColbert27 said: ↑

Doesn't it take a year just to get to Mars?

About 214 days.

slydessertfox · Jun 7, 2012

StephenColbert27 said: ↑

Doesn't it take a year just to get to Mars?

7 months. They will leave in 2022.

StephenColbert27 · Jun 7, 2012

slydessertfox said: ↑

7 months. They will leave in 2022.

Ok. That's still quite a while though.

slydessertfox · Jun 7, 2012

StephenColbert27 said: ↑

Ok. That's still quite a while though.

They already have it planned, or are in the process of planning (I forget which) of solving the transportation problem.

Romulus211 · Jun 7, 2012

So..... First colony on mars...... You think...... WE'LL FIND ANY PROTHEAN ARTIFACTS!?!??!?!

slydessertfox · Jun 7, 2012

For anyone interested in the technology they are using.

Technology
Mars One has developed a technical plan that is simple enough to be achieved within the next decade. For starters, all components required to complete the mission can already be ordered from existing suppliers. We have met with and spoken to a variety of companies that can together deliver the complete package needed.
The fully equipped mission is made up of the following features:

Launcher: A rocket will be used to launch the parts necessary for the manned mission to Mars itself.
Lander: The Lander is a capsule that can enter into the atmosphere of Mars and land on its surface.
Life Support Unit: This is a Lander that contains the systems for the generation of energy, water and breathable air within the settlement.
Supply Unit: A Lander that contains and carries food, spare parts and other smaller components for the settlement.
Living Unit: This Unit is a Lander that is outfitted with a special inflatable section. This allows it to create a large living space after landing.
Rover: The Rover can be viewed, in a sense, as an electric tractor – exploring the surface of Mars in search of the most suitable location for settlement, as well as being able to transport large hardware components.
Mars Suit: All astronauts must wear their Suits when outside in the bare atmosphere, like those used by astronauts on our Moon..
Mars Transit Vehicle: This vehicle will be responsible for bearing the astronauts to Mars, and consists of two propellant stages, a landing module and living quarters.
Communications system: The communications system transmits the video streams from Mars to Earth.
Launcher

Mars One expects to use the Falcon 9 Heavy for the mission to Mars, a launcher built by SpaceX. Currently SpaceX is using the regular Falcon 9 – its 'Heavy' sibling will start undergoing test flights in 2012 or early 2013. Of course Mars One won't need its services until 2016, so there is plenty of time for this development. The Falcon Heavy is made up of mostly the same parts as the present model.

Lander

We also expect to use a Lander built by SpaceX. It is likely to be a special variant of the company's Dragon capsule, first tested in 2010. The version Mars One requires will be slightly larger than the current version.
The Lander can be executed in five different ways: as Supply Unit, Living Unit, Life Support Unit, Lander for the astronauts and Lander for the Rover. The first four will all be utilized as part of the settling process after landing, and will then be linked together using a passageway component by the astronauts.

Supply Unit

This unit is a lander that contains supplies. The company that supplies the lander will also install the supplies into the lander - we expect this will be SpaceX. The lander will be equipped with a camera to send live images back to Earth.

Life Support Unit

In charge of caretaking is the Life Support Unit; a Lander that is rigged with various extra technologies to capitalize on the elements present on Mars. It uses these resources to create a habitable living environment for the astronauts. It does so in a number of ways.
First of all is energy, which is generated by thin film solar panels. These are flexible and can be rolled up for compact transportation and are rolled out on Mars.
Another vital task is the production of water, which is extracted from the water ice in the local ground soil. About 60 kilograms of soil is loaded into a container within the Life Support Unit by the Rover and heated to evaporate the water. The water is condensed and the dry soil is dumped. Part of the water is stored and part is used to produce oxygen. The Life Support Unit collects 1500 liters of water and 120 kilograms of oxygen in 500 days.
Finally, it filters the nitrogen and argon out of Mars' atmosphere and injects them into the habitat system as inert gases.
The Life Support Unit is connected to the Living Unit by a tube, which feeds the oxygen, nitrogen and argon through in order to create a habitable atmosphere. Once the astronauts have landed, it will also be in charge of the water purification and removal of harmful gases from the Living Unit atmosphere.
The Life Support Unit is hosted inside a Lander. Paragon Space Development can produce the life support technology itself. The company specializes in life support systems and produces parts for similar set-ups on the International Space Station.

Living Unit

The Living Unit is also a Lander, one that has a special inflatable living section and an airlock, which is used by the astronauts when leaving the settlement. The inflatable quarters are laid out by the Rover and filled with breathable air by the Life Support Unit. In addition to this, the Lander contains construction materials for the astronauts to construct rooms, floors and electrical outlets. The Lander itself contains the 'wet areas', such as the shower and kitchen.
The inflatable unit can be supplied by ILC Dover, which applies itself to Space Inflatables and makes equipment such as NASA's space suits and the landing airbags on three previous Mars rovers.

Rover

As the summary above explained, the Rover can be compared to a large electric tractor. It has both a digger arm and robotic hand to carry out a wide variety of tasks.
In contrast to the scientific rovers dispatched to Mars to date, our Rover's tasks will be focused more on utility, deployment & maintenance:

Travel autonomously around Mars to locate the most suitable area for settlement
Measure the amount of water in the soil
Transport the Landers
Remove protective panels from the Landers
Lay out the roll of panels
Extract the still deflated Living Unit from the Lander
Connect the air tube between the Life Support Unit and the Living Unit
Deposit soil in the Support Unit for water extraction and carry away the dry ground
Mars-One has discussed with MDA Space Missions the surface rover and robotic systems, based on longstanding flight heritage in robotic systems for international human spaceflight and Mars exploration.

Mars Suit

Mars' atmosphere does not allow for us to walk around without some kind of protection. You can compare the surface air pressure to that of Earth's when at a height of 25 kilometers. This means that the astronauts need to wear a specially pressurized suit: the Mars Suit. They are somewhat similar to those the astronauts wore on the Moon.
Paragon Space Development can produce these Mars Suits.

Mars Transit Vehicle

The Mars Transit Vehicle is a compact space station that will carry our astronauts all the way to Mars. It is made up of several parts, which are fused together while in low orbit around the Earth - two propellant stages, a Transit Living Module and a Lander. The propellant stages propel the Transit Vehicle towards Mars. The Transit Living Module is home to the astronauts during their seven month journey. They can sleep there, train and prepare for their arrival and landing. They enter the Lander once nearing Mars, at which point the living capsule is disconnected and left behind. The Lander is the only piece that sets foot on Mars – with the astronauts. The Transit Living Module will remain in space, orbiting the Sun.
Mars One expects the Lander to be made by SpaceX, and it will be of the same design that has been used for other, unmanned missions. We also expect SpaceX will be the supplier of the propellant stages, which would require only small changes compared to the Falcon 9 upper stage, with the biggest difference being the sheer quantity of fuel. The Transit Living Module can be built by Thales Alenia Space, the company that made several of the habitable components for the International Space Station.

Communications system

The Communications system consists of a satellite over the Mars settlement, one in orbit around the sun and ground stations on Earth.
The satellite over the Mars settlement is an areostationary satellite, the Mars equivalent of a geostationary satellite. It is always in the same place in the sky on Mars, receiving data from the settlement and transmitting them to Earth.On Earth the data is received by ground stations, large satellite dishes. The areostationary satellite enables almost 24/7 communication, which is interrupted only when Mars is in between the satellite and the Earth.
This is solved by the second satellite in a sun orbit, trailing 60 degrees behind the Earth. With this second satellite in place, when Mars is in between the areostationary satellite and the Earth, the signal can be relayed by the second satellite.
Once every 26 months, the Sun is exactly in between Mars and the Earth. This occultation lasts about six weeks. The second communications satellite will also be used to relay signals in this situation.
However, when the Sun is in between Mars and the Earth and at the same time Mars is in between the areosynchronous satellite and the second satellite, we will have no contact with Mars for about two hours. Fortunately this is a rare situation and occurs when it is after midnight on Mars.
The communication satellites and the ground stations can be supplied by Surrey Satellite Technology.

General Mosh · Jun 9, 2012

This belongs it science. A mod needs to move it. And our esteemed member with one of the highest post counts should know this.

Thefatkid · Jun 10, 2012

Cool, but I rather we focused on faster rockets to move between earth and mars quicker. In comparison to trying to live on a place with no oxygen, water, food, etc. I mean unless terrorforming is on the agenda this to me seams a bit ridiculous, yet fascinating. Well I am happy somebody decided to get off there ass and do SOMETHING in space.

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Mars: One Way Ticket To The Red Planet

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Mars: One Way Ticket To The Red Planet

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