As someone who works in aerospace and whose stated goal to retire on Mars predates even SpaceX as a company, all I can say is I'm not surprised and I'm feeling the slightest bit of schadenfreude....
As someone who works in aerospace and whose stated goal to retire on Mars predates even SpaceX as a company, all I can say is I'm not surprised and I'm feeling the slightest bit of schadenfreude. The amount of time I had to spend explaining what a waste of energy this was to literally everyone I knew was exhausting for a while.
I like to be optimistic about these kinds of things, but Mars One makes that kind of hard. Nothing about the company makes much sense unfortunately. They are/were an aerospace company effectively...
I like to be optimistic about these kinds of things, but Mars One makes that kind of hard. Nothing about the company makes much sense unfortunately. They are/were an aerospace company effectively trying to operate as a media company.
It would be like a school offering free tuition, which it will pay for itself by operating as a coffee shop.
It's a business model that in no way reflects the business' goals or its expenditures, no matter how deflated those expenditures may be. It cost 168 billion in today's money to get to the Moon. I'm willing to believe that you could get to Mars today for less...but not 28 times less.
I assumed the whole thing was some kind of scam to defraud investors. I'm honestly surprised that anyone took this seriously to begin with. One another note, are you really hoping to retire on...
I assumed the whole thing was some kind of scam to defraud investors. I'm honestly surprised that anyone took this seriously to begin with. One another note, are you really hoping to retire on Mars? I'm excited for the prospect of a manned mission, possibly in the next decade, but I don't think Mars will be a comfortable place to retire for a long time, maybe a century.
There are a lot of kinds of people. If SpaceX reaches their goal of establishing a colony, and the price of a ticket reaches a reasonably attainable cost within my lifetime, I would buy one. If I...
There are a lot of kinds of people.
If SpaceX reaches their goal of establishing a colony, and the price of a ticket reaches a reasonably attainable cost within my lifetime, I would buy one. If I were an old man by the time this happens, and there was a high probability I would be miserable and die on Mars, I would buy one. For me, being a part (however small) of the most monumental triumph of human will is more important than my own personal comfort. I always fall back on JFK's Moon speech from 1962, because it captures how I feel about the whole endeavor:
There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again. But why, some say, ~the Moon~ Mars? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?
We choose to go to ~the Moon~ Mars! We choose to go to ~the Moon~ Mars in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too
I would like to experience space, seeing Earth from another perspective, but I wouldn't leave it forever. Our planet is full of life and diversity. Travelling to another planet would feel like...
I would like to experience space, seeing Earth from another perspective, but I wouldn't leave it forever.
Our planet is full of life and diversity. Travelling to another planet would feel like going to prison, limited to go to a few places, to eat a small selection of food and see the same dry landscape everyday.
I think the people first going to Mars will have to be either very enduring or a little bit off. Purely just because yeah, most people would develop some kind of behavioral problem or depression...
I think the people first going to Mars will have to be either very enduring or a little bit off. Purely just because yeah, most people would develop some kind of behavioral problem or depression while living on Mars for long enough.
You either need to be strong enough to not be bothered by it, or creative enough to see some kind of beauty where others see desolation.
As someone who works in aerospace and whose stated goal to retire on Mars predates even SpaceX as a company, all I can say is I'm not surprised and I'm feeling the slightest bit of schadenfreude. The amount of time I had to spend explaining what a waste of energy this was to literally everyone I knew was exhausting for a while.
I like to be optimistic about these kinds of things, but Mars One makes that kind of hard. Nothing about the company makes much sense unfortunately. They are/were an aerospace company effectively trying to operate as a media company.
It would be like a school offering free tuition, which it will pay for itself by operating as a coffee shop.
It's a business model that in no way reflects the business' goals or its expenditures, no matter how deflated those expenditures may be. It cost 168 billion in today's money to get to the Moon. I'm willing to believe that you could get to Mars today for less...but not 28 times less.
I assumed the whole thing was some kind of scam to defraud investors. I'm honestly surprised that anyone took this seriously to begin with. One another note, are you really hoping to retire on Mars? I'm excited for the prospect of a manned mission, possibly in the next decade, but I don't think Mars will be a comfortable place to retire for a long time, maybe a century.
There are a lot of kinds of people.
If SpaceX reaches their goal of establishing a colony, and the price of a ticket reaches a reasonably attainable cost within my lifetime, I would buy one. If I were an old man by the time this happens, and there was a high probability I would be miserable and die on Mars, I would buy one. For me, being a part (however small) of the most monumental triumph of human will is more important than my own personal comfort. I always fall back on JFK's Moon speech from 1962, because it captures how I feel about the whole endeavor:
I would like to experience space, seeing Earth from another perspective, but I wouldn't leave it forever.
Our planet is full of life and diversity. Travelling to another planet would feel like going to prison, limited to go to a few places, to eat a small selection of food and see the same dry landscape everyday.
I think the people first going to Mars will have to be either very enduring or a little bit off. Purely just because yeah, most people would develop some kind of behavioral problem or depression while living on Mars for long enough.
You either need to be strong enough to not be bothered by it, or creative enough to see some kind of beauty where others see desolation.