Mars Mission Reality Show: Pipe Dream Or Scam?

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NORTON SCIENTIFIC

• Mars Mission Reality Show Pipe Dream Or Scam?

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Mars One 
Mars One says it wants to start selecting
astronauts in 2013 and training them on a replica
of the settlement out in the desert. The company
says it will launch supplies in 2016, followed by
the first four astronauts in 2022. The volunteer
extraterrestrial settlers would all be traveling
on a one-way ticket. Several questions spring up
almost immediately how wise is it to select
astronauts 10 years before a mission starts
through reality show casting? Is any of this
technologically feasible at this point in time?
Is Mars One a hoax, a media stunt capitalizing on
the fact that private spaceflights are in the
headlines now thanks to SpaceX, or an
overreaching pipe dream?
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The company lists only one engineer
amongst its four-person team on its website, and
trumpets the endorsements of "Big Brother"
co-creator Paul Romer as well as Nobel
Prizewinner and physicist Gerard 't Hooft -
though 't Hooft's expertise lies in quantum
mechanics, not astronomy. A man claiming to be
Mars One founder Bas Landsdorp appeared Friday on
the popular website Redditto take questions on
the project, and was quickly met with a storm of
skepticism.
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Reddit users knocked Landsdorp, saying Mars One
has not yet put out any concrete technical
explanations of how they will get to Mars and
support the proposed habitats. Some pointed out
that NASA has had issues with solar panels on its
Mars rovers because of dust storms that erode the
panels' surfaces and block the sunlight for long
periods of time, making Mars One's plans to use
solar panels for energy generation unsustainable
for supporting human life.
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But the man claiming to be Landsdorp mostly
steered clear of the more scientific questions
and directed users to the company's website. One
user going by the handle arcanosis commented
"This is almost certainly a publicity stunt. Your
answers are nontechnical, imprecise, absurdly
optimistic, even quixotic." If Mars One turns out
to be a hoax, it wouldn't be the first such stunt
originating from the Netherlands in recent
months.  Dutch artist Floris Kaayk hoodwinked
much of the media with his "Human
Birdwings" project in March, in which he posted
YouTube videos purportedly showing a
human-powered pair of mechanical wings.