As this is both current events, and a bit sciencey, it seems appropriate to mention this at least once:
There is a group of people intent on a mission to colonize Mars. They hope to land in the year 2025, and guess what? It's a one way trip...
That's right. Mars One is a non-profit venture based out of the Netherlands with the goal of colonizing Mars by the year 2025. Their long term plan? To establish a permanent settlement on Mars. It sounds a bit crazy, but they've been working on this since 2012. Below I listed a sample of their incremental goals to colonizing Mars:
- 2013: The first 40 astronauts were to have been selected;[6] a replica of the settlement was planned to be built for training purposes.[7]
- 2014: The first communication satellite was to have been produced.
- 2016: A supply mission would launch with 2500 kilograms of food in a modified SpaceX Dragon.
- 2018: An exploration vehicle would launch to pick the location of the settlement.[7]
- 2021: Six additional Dragon capsules and another rover would launch with two living units, two life-support units and two supply units.
- 2022: A SpaceX Falcon Heavy would launch with the first group of four colonists.[7]
- 2023: The first colonists were to arrive on Mars in a modified Dragon capsule.
- 2025: A second group of four colonists slated to arrive.[7]
- 2033: The colony projected to reach 20 settlers. s.[8]
*Courtesy of Wikipedia.
It actually sounds plausible. The cost factor has been mentioned numerous times, and apart from multiple sponsors, Mars One plans to host a reality TV show of the entire event, which is expected to produce the bulk of the income required for the mission. Their timeline has been pushed back a few times already, but they still hope to have the first group of colonists to Mars by 2025.
Who would be willing to take a 1 way trip to Mars, and why is it only 1 way? This question has been in the news a lot recently, and it boils down to these 2 answers: People purely devoted to science, and cost. The philosophy is similar to the astronauts who signed up to go to the moon. They had no guarantee of safe return either. Neither do some of our soldiers. It is 1 way because of cost mainly. We may send a probe one day to bring them back, but the initial cost of a round trip is over 10 times the cost of a 1 way trip.
Over 1000 people have signed up as applicants, and the process has narrowed down to about 700 or so now. Eventually, 6 teams of 4 will be chosen, then trained over the next few years.
Personally? I vote a moon or underwater colony. They are both much closer. Mars in comparison, would take between 1-5 months to travel to, depending on speed, trajectory, etc. That's a long time cooped up with 3 other people!
-Sheepdog-
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