Mars One, or Mars’ got talent

Following on from my last post about people with vision finally taking the first steps to true space industry. Comes the rather off the wall idea from dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp, that the way to fund a mission to mars is not with government money ala NASA but with good old TV money.

Bas’ idea boils down to turning the mission into a reality tv event, and its not as crazy as you might think at first. A mars mission would inevitably be a huge event for the media anyway. Bas’ has just turned that on its head, lets use that media interest as the driver for the whole thing. The reality tv show would follow the prospective colonists through the selection process leading to the 4 people sent in the first mission or season/series being picked from a public vote. The show would than follow these 4 people as they travelled to mars and set up the first human settlement on another world. These 4 people would than be followed by subsequent missions expanding the settlement with the hope of it eventually becoming self sufficient.

Wait though before you put yourself forward. This is most likely a one way trip. No return is planned and any help is a considerable distance away. Add to that that a sizable minority of the viewers will be tuning in hoping for your horrible death and it is not for everyone.

Personally I’m not yet convinced. Its such early days and I can’t help but have concerns for any endeavour were the FAQs page starts with “Is this for real?”. They have done a lot of work for it to be some elaborate joke, and I’d love this to be the actual point were business starts leading us into the solar system.