Apparently, a Dutch entrepreneur plans on sending the first humans to Mars for permanent settlement by 2023!
And he plans on turning it into a Big Brother-esque reality TV show!
I suspected it was an elaborate hoax, just like that one Dutch guy who posted a video on Youtube of himself flying. I was even more skeptical after viewing the website and how poorly translated it was.
But, the guy insists that it's for real and he may not be lying because he recently recruited a Nobel Prize winning physicist, and the BBC did a report on the project.
How awesome would it be if this turned out to be for real!


Here are the links to the website and the BBC news article:
http://mars-one.com/en/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18506033

What do you guys think? Is it a hoax? Is it even doable by 2023?

Dont mind me saying, but IT'S A TRAP.

Yeah, it looks fake.

THAT IS INSANE
In a good way if it true, in a total dick way if it's not. I approve of human space exploration and LOVE it when this stuff happens...but 2023 is much much too near for mars, I'd be happier if it was closer to 2050, then at least it would be safer and done properly etc., since it does take around 6 months to get to Mars and those astronauts likely wouldn't return home due to the infinite things that could go wrong in that time

I'm not completely convinced either but they've got a Nobel Prize winning Physicist to act as their ambassador AND the BBC to write an article about them. And don't forget the SpaceX Dragon ship (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18195772) or the Red Bull Stratos mission (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18195772). They were pretty ambitious too and both were funded by private corporations. They were also featured on the BBC, so I don't think the BBC would report false information purposely.

Originally Posted by drpatel

THAT IS INSANE
In a good way if it true, in a total dick way if it's not. I approve of human space exploration and LOVE it when this stuff happens...but 2023 is much much too near for mars, I'd be happier if it was closer to 2050, then at least it would be safer and done properly etc., since it does take around 6 months to get to Mars and those astronauts likely wouldn't return home due to the infinite things that could go wrong in that time

2023 isn't near for mars. We could have easily been there by now, but too many governments and politicians don't fund space programs enough.

Thanks a lot bin laden and Dick Cheney. If it wasnt for terrorism we would have been on mars by now

Originally Posted by tray

Thanks a lot bin laden and Dick Cheney. If it wasnt for terrorism we would have been on mars by now

Watch what you say, Osama just liked the previous post.

It's all good, I get it all the time.

Now could we get back on topic? As in how big a deal it is that we'll be starting a colony on Mars potentially as soon as 2023!

Theres no way you can make enough money off a tv show to justify spending trillions to make a colony there..

Its a lot more likely that the best we can hope for by 2023 is virgin galactic type flights to the outer atmosphere and maybe moon visits -- most space exploration will focus around asteroid mining, and going all that way for what resources are available on Mars is ridiculous.

(assuming no huge technological advancements that massively reduce the cost/kg of sending things to space)

According to their website, they've conducted high-level meetings with various space agencies in order to acquire the equipment needed to go to Mars.
Based on their projections, it will cost $6 Billion to send 4 people to Mars by 2023.

Let's hope the civilization on Mars learns from its ancestors on Earth and doesn't make the same mistakes.

Doable by 2023? If we, as in human civilization as a whole, had gotten our act together, there isn't much good reason we couldn't have already pulled it off. It's been over 40 years since we put people on the Moon. Does getting a manned spaceflight out to Mars really seem like it takes over 40 years of development starting from the point of getting a manned spaceflight out to the Moon?

EDIT: Also, it wasn't even all of humanity that worked together to put people on the Moon. If every nation of the Earth worked together to advance spacefaring technology, instead of making the whole thing into an extension of an arms race (and more or less stopping the work once the arms race ended), it's even harder to imagine that a mission to Mars could not have been done by now.

Honestly the 6Billion has better uses...

Originally Posted by Leeoku

Honestly the 6Billion has better uses...

Howso? If its a cost for a private firm to do this, how could you say it has better uses? You're better off listing all of the 'better uses' than all sorts large expenditures of companies currently conducting their practices on earth..

Even if this is all real, and they intend to do what they do what they say, just by making the endeavour they'll be speeding up the proliferation of humans beyond earth, which is a hugely positive thing.

Given that throughout pretty much all of human history, wars and conflict has centred around resource scarcity and overall proximity of people to each other, I think that space exploration is one of the better steps in the right direction to lessening most of the strife humans have. If we suddenly have an abundance of ______ mineral, chemical, or resource, it goes a long way to cheapening the cost of living for people on earth. If oil, agriculture land, or some form of metal is suddenly abundant, imagine how much better it would be to be able to obtain it easily down here?

(this is a general reply to people who always ***** about space exploration being a waste of time and money 'when we have our own problems down here to deal with', not specifically in response to you)