Posted on 02/19/2015 3:59:41 AM PST by lbryce
The Dutch-based Mars One venture says it's winnowed down its list of applicants to 50 men and 50 women who will compete for the chance to take a one-way trip to Mars. Yes, that's the reward — not the punishment. The Mars One project plans to put on a reality-TV competition to select 24 prospective crew members for missions to Mars, starting as early as 2024. Winners would be expected to start up a permanent colony on the Red Planet.
Thousands signed up for Mars One consideration in 2013, and the 100 competitors (full list here) were chosen after going through interviews with chief medical officer Norbert Kraft. "Being one of the best individual candidates does not automatically make you the greatest team player, so I look forward to seeing how the candidates progress and work together in the upcoming challenges." Kraft said in a news release issued Monday.
Mars One estimates that it will need billions of dollars to conduct its Mars missions, including a robotic rover mission planned for launch in 2018. The money question is the biggest unknown right now, but last year an MIT study concluded that the venture's plan to send humans to Mars and keep them alive was "overly optimistic" on technical grounds.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
This is the final go round where applicants have been narrowed down to the final 100 of which 24 have chosen to be buried on Mars after a fulfilling, productive, long-lived mission to build a thriving Mars colony that is expected to start in 2024.
It is still a long way off until 2024 when the first of the Marsonauts are expected to launch and with the political circumstances on Earth going the way they are, who knows if they will ever get off the ground. But seeing that they do, these people really have no idea what they're in for, despite their devil may care attitude, as one candidate said, "we're all going to die some day", which to me is a really dumb rationale for putting yourself in as perilous a situation imaginable in technologically-deficient early 21st century.
First of all, the flight and landing for many reasons is going to be difficult enough. Assuming all goes right with the technology, the physical, mental challenges are quite daunting in itself. The mere fact that they will never again operate in a gravity as strong as that of the Earth's is enough reason not to go. Astronauts who have spent extended time in space even after exercising up to 10 hours per day have never fully recovered physically. So after the trip to Mars their muscles atrophied by weightlessness and then spending the rest of your life in only one quarter gravity, doesn't bode well for long term health nor the ability to remain strong with weakened muscles. Fortunately for them instruments have not detected much in the way or radiation on Mars, despite he lack of radiation belts in space that deflects the sun's rays on Earth.
As far as the demographic make-up of the final round of 100 is concerned, I went through each profile, wondering how many black candidates were eligible to go to Mars and even then only 1 out of the blacks had a statistical chance of being chosen. Out of the final 100, I counted only five blacks MAXIMUM. Which means, even when seeing people with a certain skin color I still counted them as black to see what the maximum amount of blacks were made eligible. I counted five. Five blacks out of 100 whites. I posted the link so you can determine what the number of blacks were chosen by Mars One.
Blacks comprise 13.2% of the American population yet only 5% have been deemed eligible. The most, the very most of the black vs white ratio going to Mars is 20% or so, if indeed there are five blacks and only if they all are chosen. But the chances for all blacks found eligible among the 100 being chosen to be buried on Mars is statistically nil. But let's just make a determination on what we know exactly, that only 5% of the possible 100 candidates are black.
Does Al Sharpton know about this? Does President Obama know? They could very easily jeopardize the entire Mars One effort if they got wind of it. Why isn't anyone upset? I really don't know. It gets really upsetting that we don't know the religious background of these Earth Martian wannabees. What about Muslims? What if some Islamic leader wants to extend Muhammad's hegemony to outer space and broaden the dimensions of Jihad fighting aliens for Allah, why not? Well, it happens to be that Islamic scholars have already discussed Mars One and have issued a fatwah against any Muslim crazy enough to want extend his butt crack five times a day towards Earth on the very peak of Olympus Mons, the solar system's highest mountain peak.
Brave souls. Not a very hospitable place to live but might make an interesting reality show...
Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids.
The only people dumber than the morons who applied for this scam are the people in the media who think that these bozos will ever get closer than 34 million miles from Mars.
In fact, it’s cold as hell....
Nobody is dumb here, and nobody is brave. This is all about the reality TV show which will definitely launch on schedule.
Can we nominate Obama, Sharpton, Jessie Jackson, Nancy Pelosi? These people’s minds are in orbit somewhere out around Jupiter anyway.
You beat me. I spent time getting the video. :-)
I wish i had the dough to send 268 people to Mars. Then, I can think of 535 people I would like to send half-way there.
Maybe blacks are smart enough to know not to sign up for a one way trip to Mars.
The show would likely go global and bring more advertising dollars than the Superbowl
Interesting way to fund space exploration and better than milking the taxpayers
Since our prisons are overflowing, Mars would be perfect for our most violent criminals...and traitors. Pack your bag, Barry. FORE!
That didn’t take long, but I was pretty sure it wouldn’t.
We have to get off the planet if humankind is going to survive. There’s nothing that guarantees our survival as a species otherwise.
Dumb. Humans are not “optimized” for living on other planets. The long-term effects will be devastating.
Colonizing Mars? Foolishness. The issues that divide on Earth won’t go away -the racial/sex/language/religion animosity will go with them to Mars. Gay marriage and affirmative action on Mars?
Interesting analog to Australia. A one way trip, for most. An exile colony for criminals. Perhaps in 20, 50, or 100 years, Mars will be much the same; a rough place for rough characters. 100, or 150 years from now tourists may flock to Mars to see the sites; a hike up Olympus Mons or perhaps piloting a glider thru Mariner Valley.
And there’s no one there to raise them...if you did.
Mars is the god of war. A very appropriate place for convicts.
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