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And I've been reading stories about privately-funded spaceflight for decades. Do you know how many humans have been put into orbit by privately-funded, non-governmental organizations? Precisely zero. Ever.
Putting aside the technological hurdles for the moment (which are real and considerable, but feasibly manageable), there's the cost. The Mars One organization has estimated the cost to get to Mars at $6 billion - they admit that does not include the cost of the life-support system for the arrivals. And anyone who has ever paid attention to space missions knows that nothing - nothing - ever comes in anywhere close to on-budget. For comparison, a 2009 NASA study of a bare-bones round-trip manned mission to Mars came in at $100,000,000. And that's probably lowballing it.
Oh, and how is Mars One planning on funding this incredibly expensive endeavor? With donations, sponsorships, merchandise, and a reality TV show. That's a lot of Mars One shotglasses and commercials for Hyundais. Which brings us to how much Mars One has raised so far - less than a million dollars. Just to be clear, $6 billion (which, again, isn't going to come close to covering the total costs in the end) is 6000 x $1,000,000.
Charlie Sheen will be elected President with the guy who shot the lion as his running mate before Mars One ever leaves the launch pad.
And I've been reading stories about privately-funded spaceflight for decades. Do you know how many humans have been put into orbit by privately-funded, non-governmental organizations? Precisely zero. Ever.
Putting aside the technological hurdles for the moment (which are real and considerable, but feasibly manageable), there's the cost. The Mars One organization has estimated the cost to get to Mars at $6 billion - they admit that does not include the cost of the life-support system for the arrivals. And anyone who has ever paid attention to space missions knows that nothing - nothing - ever comes in anywhere close to on-budget. For comparison, a 2009 NASA study of a bare-bones round-trip manned mission to Mars came in at $100,000,000. And that's probably lowballing it.
Oh, and how is Mars One planning on funding this incredibly expensive endeavor? With donations, sponsorships, merchandise, and a reality TV show. That's a lot of Mars One shotglasses and commercials for Hyundais. Which brings us to how much Mars One has raised so far - less than a million dollars. Just to be clear, $6 billion (which, again, isn't going to come close to covering the total costs in the end) is 6000 x $1,000,000.
Charlie Sheen will be elected President with the guy who shot the lion as his running mate before Mars One ever leaves the launch pad.
well, actually, I didn't know and still don't know much about it, at all....but find it all interesting...
Can Mars actually sustain human life?
I have so so many questions, but do find this really worth discussing.
Hopefully he can actually pull this off. lol I love the idea of this, but Mars is so uninteresting to me. It's like one massive desert. Boo. Plus it has such a thin atmosphere, but I'm sure the guy has already prepared for that.
yes, but and I apologize, but would Mars be able to sustain human life?
Per the existing science, Mars cannot outright sustain human life. As in, you can't land in your spaceship, open the door and go live there. Mars however does have abundant resources, including frozen water. A habitat could be constructed that would allow humans to live on Mars for extended periods of time using local resources to generate oxygen, water, power and food.
well, actually, I didn't know and still don't know much about it, at all....but find it all interesting...
Can Mars actually sustain human life?
I have so so many questions, but do find this really worth discussing.
Thanks so much for your input.
I think that with a lot of work Mars maybe able to support human life, but it will not be an easy task. First of all, Mars has no magnetosphere to speak of, this means that Mars is always being bombarded by high energy particles from the Sun. Lets say they terraform Mars, the problem is how do you keep an atmosphere in tact when the solar winds are trying to strip it away. So in essence, life on Mars would have to be moved underground, a Sunday afternoon walk on the surface would be suicide unless you had your 5 million dollar suit on.
As a kid I thought going to Mars would be cool, now days, well, I can go to the high deserts here in Oregon and get almost the same experience and it's a lot safer.
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