TYLER PATTERSON MARS ONE:

 Mars One is an international private sector initiative to start a small colony on the surface of mars.  Founded in 2011 by Bas Lansdorp and Arno Wielders FOUNDED:

 To achieve the lofty goal of human life on another planet, Mars One has laid out a basic road map:  2013: Start Crew Selection  2015: Start Crew Training  2018: Demo & Comsat Mission  2020: Rover Mission Launched  2022: Cargo Missions Launched  2023: Outpost Operational  2024: Departure Crew One  2025: Landing Crew One  2026: Departure Crew Two PLAN:

Mars One has support from the following companies:  Space Exploration Technologies  Paragon Space Development  Space Exploration Technologies  ILC Dover  MDA Corporation  Astrobotic Technology  Thales Alenia Space  Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd  Lockheed Martin  University of Twente - ATLAS SUPPORT:

 Returning from the Martian planet is technologically infeasible through available technology, so Mars One is a one way trip. “The Mars One crews are people that want to settle on Mars. Absence of a return mission reduces the mission infrastructure radically. Earth return vehicles that can take off from Mars are currently unavailable and untested technologies and such mission designs incur far greater costs. For the astronauts, Mars will be a new home, where they will live and work. While this may seem unreasonable to some, others have no greater ambition in their life. Such dedicated settlers will be chosen by Mars One as their crews.” RETURN:

The two greatest risks associated with Mars One are:  Human Life- “After more than fifty years of humans traveling from Earth to space, the risk of space flight is similar to that of climbing Mount Everest. Mars is an unforgiving environment where a small mistake or accident can result in large failure, injury, and death. Every component must work perfectly. Every system (and its backup) must function without fail or human life is at risk.”  Cost Overrun- Cost overruns are also not uncommon in large projects in any arena. The risk for cost overrun in the Mars One Mission is reduced by using existing technologies, and by the fact that about 66% of the cost is associated with launch and landing-- both of which are well understood and proven variables. RISKS AND CHALLENGES:

  This TED Talk is particularly unique and interesting as it is one of the few that make feasible plans for interplanetary colonization. TED TALK:

 The executives at Mars One had three main needs to accommodate:  1. Crew  2. Funding  3. Publicity  Mars One introduced a marketing plan to publicly recruit its astronauts via a long gauntlet of interview, voting, and testing (much like a reality tv show). This plan’s mission was to get a crew for Mars One, but ended up creating a large media reaction which resulted in positive publicity and massive private funding.  “Mars One plans on turning the first human mission to Mars into the largest media event in history.” MARKETING:

 One claim made by critics is that “The public is in love with the idea. It’s in love with the concept of interplanetary trade and off-world colonies. The fact that space travel is one of the most tedious and technical undertakings that science has ever attempted is something that most people just don’t think about... Space travel is boring.”  Critics also claim that the astronauts are not nearly qualified enough and TV based funding will fail. CONTROVERSY

 A habitat large enough for 4 people and supplies for 2 years will be the size of a house and will weigh 40 to 60 tons! A parachute to land something this heavy on Mars will have to be the size of a large stadium, completely impractical. Mars One needs to demonstrate that they can successfully land something this large and heavy with pinpoint precision before they send people.  There is no launch vehicle large enough to launch something as large as the aforementioned lander into the Earth orbit, let alone send it toward Mars. Mars One may try to assemble the lander stack in Earth orbit using existing launch vehicles but they don't even have a contract with the launch service providers (e.g. Arianespace, SpaceX) to use the existing launch vehicles.  To survive on Mars, the colonists will have to extract resources in-situ. Ability to do this on Mars has not been demonstrated.  If Mars One wants to go to Mars in 2023, the designs for the colony should be well advanced, and fabrication of some long lead items should be underway. By now, tens of thousands of people should be working on the project.  The Mars One website claims that they can pull the whole thing off for measly US $6 Billion. They are off by several orders of magnitude! Using these numbers a guide, a Mars colony, with a resupply mission every 2 years or so, should cost anywhere from $750 Billion to $1 Trillion for the first 10 years. CONTROVERSY CONT.

 If Mars One is successful mankind will have a functioning and self sustaining colony on the surface of Mars. While this goal might seem lofty and far fetched, the Mars One Mission is developing into a very legitimate undertaking. END GOAL:

   one-and-why-it-matters/ one-and-why-it-matters/  could-go-horribly-wrong-if-it-ever-gets-off-the-ground/ could-go-horribly-wrong-if-it-ever-gets-off-the-ground/ BIBLOGRAPHY