Why Mars One is a scam – Trustworthiness/Appearence

They didn’t state any technical specification. They launched a crappy website made a bad CGI video. As proof they show some letters from aerospace companies and the resumee from 4 people who have no expertise in spaceflight. Then they made a huge press conference anouncing that they opened up application. Nothing more, no details, nothing. Each applicant has to pay a fee… Talking about gullets… Most serious space ventures remain silent until there is sufficent backing and research done.

Of course all the media jumps on it, repeating it uncritically, because most of them are unable or too lazy to research, so they copy and paste and recycle articles. Or maybe do so even knowingly for better revenue, because their readers want to dream, like the fairy tales and click, again and again. That’s why the Mars One crackpot idea gets that kind of attention, an attention that is extremly blown out of proportion.

A nobel prize winner says he likes the idea. Well, now we know, that even nobel prize winners might not be that smart, at least if it’s not their domain of expertise. But if you were Lance Basdork, wouldn’t you want to provide a source of credibility and pay a ‘noble’ person to say something nice about your idea? Not that I want to indicate that this is what happened. It could simply be ignorance on a noble persons part.

Applications are open for all people without expertise or other exclusion criteria? Why would you need a doctor, an engineer or a technician anyway? I wonder why they openend application for everybody around the world? Perhaps so that they can milk more people for their money? At the time this was written more than 165,000 people applied (which is 165,001 too much), which probably amounts to a few million dollar already. Not a bad cut and easy money for a simple media campaign, a crappy website and a video. But the show must go on and it proberbly will go on for few seasons.

By Mars One they should have  realized how impossible their project is, so even the last fanboy might start to wonder why they go on? Excactly: KERCHING!

It all boils down to deception which feeds of  ignorance and belief from their victims. The con artist is a professional deceiver, by capturing and leading the imagination, he directs sheeple to his intended outcome. He is a perfect liar, a Baron of Lies, a sleazy imposter and evil deceptor. Only vile lies originate from his bottomless pit of deception which is his gullet. Steady is his grin and sleek his mascerade. He would even sell his grandma for a discount or put her into a container to be watched by millions. Since Lasdork worked in Reality TV buisness before, he knows exactly how to manipulate the masses. This is his field of expertise.

A wonderful fairy tale by Lans Basdorp – DEBUNKED

I could go on about this, but better make a cut here: At best its a profitable venture for a few con artists, at worst its a suicide mission. To keep it going they will only bring out some announcements now and then, some design studies and contract work with aerospace companies. Then they will make a little hocus pocus in the desert, rake in a few millions with their TV show, just to announce: „We are terribly sorry, but there is unfortunatly not enough money to go on. We thank everybody who believed in us. One day the dream of mars colonization will come true.“ yada yada yada… „Oh, sorry, NO REFUNDS!“ By then they lived of millions of dollars.

If you have been a Mars One enthusiast and are still reading to this point my advice would be to stop believing just because you want to believe, while throwing money into these con artists gullets! It’s just sad that such crackpot ideas potentially undermine serious future projects.

Why Mars One is a scam – Redundancy

A 3 or 4 time redundancy is required in spaceflight to guarantee the survival of the crew and much more so if there is no evacuation possibility like on mars. Every single, simple piece of equipment that fails will endanger the crew at best or cause a fatal catastrophy at worst. Supply missions can only be send if Mars and Earth align, so every two years and it takes 6 months to arrive. All the supplies, tools, rovers, solar cells, spares, suits, etc. in at least 3 times redundancy will mass much more than 40 tonnes. Of course there is no mass estimate or an explanation on how they want to squeeze this into 8 dragon capsules. Is it because they don’t know? Or do they have no idea how to pack or to unpack it since dragon has only a small hatch?

Mars One wants to send one communication satellite. Certainly because they are called Mars ONE! But what if it fails? “Hello? Here is Bas Lapdork. I am calling Mars One. Please respond!“ No response, so they wait 3 years to build another satellite and send it there. When arrives 6 months later: „Hello, Mars One, here is Bras Lameduck, Please respond! Are you dead? Can we send the next bunch of people to bury you?“

Why Mars One is a scam – Economics:

$6 billion to fund this plan is a joke. The MSL rover alone was $2,5 Bill. Compare that with Golden Spike company lunar landing plan, which has budgeted between $7 and $8 billion to achieve their objective, followed by around $1.5 billion fee per each “two-human lunar surface mission”. GS said it can cut costs by partnering with other aerospace companies and using existing rockets or rockets already in development, needing to only build a lunar lander and a specialized spacesuit for astronauts for the moon – for a very short trip, in the order of days.

A low cost mars mission will start with a few 10 billion and will need billions per year in fixed costs to continue. And it needs to go on, remember? There are people involved. Even if they seem to be that stupid to voluntarliy go on a suicide mission, it’s not a good idea to let them, mainly because it would undermine every reputable future mission.

I might be willing to reconsider my opinion if Landsorc would go first. But sadly he doesn’t want to. I wonder why?

Mars One says they want to finance it through advertising and as a reality TV show. Compare it to the the Apollo program: the public interest in Apollo faded quickly after the first lunar landing. Nobody simply cared anymore.

Reality TV feeds of drama and conflict. So they have to send neurotic, egoistic people or those with behavioral disorders and of course those stupid enough to go on a suicide mission. As opposed to the sane and reliable ones, those would endanger the mission even more.

How boring is it actually over many months cruising in space? Well if the fanb.. astronauts go crazy, there might be some action. But nobody would be interested in the long run (after a few weeks) seeing people pressing buttons in a capsule or digging holes on mars. And what happens then? Without interest no money and no supplies and Bas landsorp will mysteriously vanish, escaping to his favorite secret vacation spot. Then the only interesting question will be, wether the “colonists” suffocate or starve to death, creating some publicity for the last time. And this would be the fodder/drama every reality show creator dreams of, wouldn’t it?

Mars One – Or how to scam millions

Introduction
A warning in advance! This Article may shake your worldview. It is not save to read if you want to remain in a nice comfortable Mars fantasy bubble. Also if you are determined to believe in Mars One, you can stop reading right here and save a few minutes of your time (but you will regret it later).

To all others: Perhaps you came here because you already had the feeling that something might be not quite right with Mars One, there are actually many informed sources, who argue against such a plan and they are not found in the mainstream media, but rather in expert forums. Certainly one could go into very detailed discussion as to why it is impossible from an engeneering point, but here I tried to compile the most basic problems, because often researching can be more difficult and time consuming than simply watching a promotion clip and read all those articles and dream and hope and believe. If you are open minded you also might not care for any grammar and spelling error’s that occure because english isn’t my first language. So let’s begin:

Why is Mars One a scam? – Technology:

Compare how long it took Virgin Galactic to build their Space ship Two and make it safe. This is suborbital and they are already 5 years behind schedule. Similarly it took SpaceX nearly 10 years to develop a cargo version of the Falcon 9 and it will take nearly 14 years from the beginning to fly a crewed version. SpaceX is very ambitious and this is proven tech and only to low earth orbit. Years of delays is normal in space industry. The more ambitious and complex the longer it takes, because of long supply chains.

There is no indication that Mars One has any idea what kind of technology would be necessary or how this needs to be developed or integrated (and integration is key). Thousands of aerospace experts need to work continiously, which is a very costly standing army and amounts to billions of dollars per year alone. This money has to be paid upfront.

You cannot simply shop for components and hope that it will magically combine, fly and work. So far Mars One only has letters of interest from mentioned companies, absolutely no guarantee that they can deliver the necessary components. By the way, where is Boeing (one of the biggest aerospace companies) on their list?

Mars One plans to use a 5,2 meter diameter dragon capsule, which is not going to be developed by SpaceX in the near future and certainly not human rated, so the house of cards is collapsing right there, but for fun let’s go on a little bit, because it becomes better:

There is no EDL (Entry Descent Landing) technology for Mars in the near future, certainly not a 5,2m dragon capsule in 2018. A Mars super sonic propulsive landing must be demonstrated first and OFTEN before you can send humans or they will die on impact. It is unknown if landing big masses on mars even works with current technology. There is only a proposal for a small mission for Spacex’ Dragon (3,2m) capsule (called Red Dragon), to test this kind of landing in 2018 at earliest, but no funding yet.

Rolling out solar cells? I wonder how many much solar cells must be rolled out, so that enough electricity is produced in dust seasons? Yes, there are dust storms for months which cover the whole planet! But why not roll out some solar cells?

Dust is also a serious problem in another way, as it will damage the machines and materials and effect the health of the fanbo… astronauts if inhaled, as experienced by Apollo astronauts on the moon, because it is very fine grained and most certainly toxic. But why not simply use a vacuum cleaner? Degradation of space suits in a matter of weeks, will be a similar problem.

They seriously underestimate the robotics that is necessary to build the base. MSL manoevering takes a lot of time, because of radio delay and many other concerns. MSL is driving a few meters per day and has little time to do other things.

How will a big rover land on Mars, if NASA says it cannot land bigger masses than MSL? If Dragon could land on mars, a rover cannot simply pop out a dragon hatch. The MSL landing was a very complex and costly manouver (for one rover alone).

How will such a big rover handle and carry around big capsules (15t, 5,2m) collecting them from a 10 – 50 km landing ellipse. How will such a rover be powered? Solar power or a nuclear reactor? Coal or marsian dust?