A new report sheds light on the preparedness of the Mars One company that has been promising to send a group of people to Mars before the end of the decade. It shows that the company may actually be in trouble of collapsing, having no clear direction or financial clout to go through with their promises.
It doesn't look like Mars One will be the company to help establish the first human colony on Mars.
Mars One
A new report from Inverse shows that the Mars One company may be in real trouble despite all of its promises regarding a manned mission to Mars. The basic gist of the mission that is being offered by Mars One is that it will be a privately funded mission to Mars using volunteers that will be put through an application process before being selected. It planned to send this mission off to Mars by 2023.
Inverse's report finds that the company is disorganized and doesn't have enough resources to be able to get this mission off the ground. It shows that the company doesn't have the plans necessary for embarking on this mission to Mars.
Mars One claims that it received around 200,000 applications for the mission, each person paid a $40 application fee. Despite this cash that it received, the company is running out of money. The cost for the project would be $6 billion, but Mars One is struggling to raise even $10 million for the mission.
Even the number of applicants may have been exaggerated. Mars One CMO Norbert Kraft says that he only saw 80,000 applications for the mission. NBC counted the number of applications for the mission and only found 2,782.
Mars One also claimed to have contracts with Lockheed Martin and SpaceX to develop tech and ships for the mission. Both companies say in the story that they do not have contracts with Mars One in place for such things.
Candidates for the mission also grew disillusioned with the lack of preparation or planning. Trey Carriveaux, a nuclear reactor operator, was chosen for the mission but walked away when he saw that the technology for finding water was not there. He said that he only received a vague explanation for how it would work.
Brent Bros, a senior research physicist for NASA, left after he saw that the timelines were constantly being changed.
Past Mars One Detractors
The mission has had its detractors over the years, even before scathing reports about the company. MIT researchers found that the idea to send volunteers to Mars by 2024 would cause the first humans to die within 68 days of arrival due to improper venting.
Another detractor of the project is Neil DeGrasse Tyson. He was convinced that the project would fail because it wouldn't be able to raise the funds for the mission. Tyson said that no one would invest in a project that involves sending people on a life-threatening mission that would be very expensive.
There were also studies done on the risks that a trip to Mars would cause in humans. The study found that the biggest problem with the trip would be the radiation that could increase the chances of developing leukemia.
