[SKRIVA] Mars One project - a fraud?
- From: Ahrvid <ahrvid@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "trufen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <trufen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "skriva@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <skriva@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2015 13:03:43 +0100
Let me first state that I'm strongly in favour of exploring and in the longer
run colonising Mars. The Mars One Project (sending volunteers on a one-way
trip) may be a good idea. The people would be grown-ups doing it with open eyes
and a little competition might inspire NASA and others to do better.
But this piece worries me:
https://medium.com/matter/mars-one-insider-quits-dangerously-flawed-project-2dfef95217d3
"No money, no process, no explanation: An insider speaks out on the hopelessly
flawed scheme.
...many media outlets continue to report that Mars One received
applications from 200,000 people who would be happy to die on another
planet — when the number it actually received was 2,761. ... some leading
contenders for themission had bought their way into that position, and are
being encouraged to
“donate” any appearance fees back to Mars One — which seemed to him very
strange for an outfit that needs billions of dollars to complete its
objective.
... the only way to get more points is to buy merchandise from Mars One or to
donate money to them.” ...
“Community
members” can redeem points by purchasing merchandise like T-shirts,
hoodies, and posters, as well as through gifts and donations: The group
also solicits larger investment from its supporters. Others have been
encouraged to help the group make financial gains on flurries of media
interest. In February, finalists received a list of “tips and tricks”
for dealing with press requests, which included this: "If you are offered
payment for an interview then feel free to accept it. We do kindly ask for you
to donate 75% of your profit to Mars One."
The result, said Roche, is that high-profile prospects including those in a
list of "Top 10 hopefuls" published last month in The Guardian are, in fact,
simply the people who have generated the most money for Mars One. ...' that
secretive selection process is hopelessly, and dangerously, flawed.“I have not
met anyone from Mars One in person,” he said. “Initially
they’d said there were going to be regional interviews… we would travel
there, we’d be interviewed, we’d be tested over several days, and in my
mind that sounded at least like something that approached a legitimate
astronaut selection process.“But
then they made us sign a non-disclosure agreement if we wanted to be
interviewed, and then all of a sudden it changed from being a proper
regional interview over several days to being a 10-minute Skype call.” ...Mars
One’s testing methods fall well short of NASA’s stringent astronaut
corps requirements — not least in the case of anyone who would be
training to be the mission commander, the individual who would actually
pilot a theoretical craft to Mars. Commanders at NASA are required to
have logged 1,000 jet aircraft flight hours to even be considered as
training candidates for spaceflight.Applicants were told they did
not have permission to record the interview or to take any notes. Today,
Roche said, he has still never had an in-person meeting with anyone
associated with Mars One, and he is not aware that any candidate has
ever been interviewed in person to assess their suitability to be sent
one-way, forever, on a deep-space mission.“That means all the info they have
collected on me is a crap video "
This and other things (like the shortage of time to solve all technical
problems, if they are to be on Mars around 2023) make me have strong doubts
about Mars One. Some aspects of it seem like a Ponzi scheme or a scientology
cult.
But I still believe it's worthwhile to go to Mars, and also that private
companies can contribute. Government agancies just drag their feet.
--Ahrvid
/Crossposted to SKRIVA too - och där kan ni kommentera på svenska./
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