Eric Berger at Ars Technica writes, "To almost no one’s surprise, Mars One is done."
So what is it? It's a private partnership between 2 Dutch and Swiss companies.
"Mars One aims to establish a permanent human settlement on Mars. Mars is the only planet we know of that can currently feasibly support human life and will be humankind’s first step to become a multiplanetary species."
They're talking one-way ticket. Except Mars can't 'currently feasibly support human life.'
Viking 1 & 2 landed on Mars in 1976. They spent many years beaming pictures, soil data, and life experiments back to Earth.
The roving Mars Pathfinder landed in 1997, and died in '98. "The mission carried a series of scientific instruments to analyze the Martian atmosphere, climate, geology and the composition of its rocks and soil."
Mars Spirit rover followed in 2004 to continue the mission until it failed in 2010. And in the 1970s, the Soviet Union sent its own series of probes to explore the Martian planet.
Human beings have a planet full of knowledge about the 4th rock from the Sun, and it can't currently feasibly support human life because it's a pretty inhospitable planet. In fact, it's cold as hell; the average temperature is about minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The thin Martian atmosphere is 95 percent carbon dioxide. Actual H2O has yet to be found on the planet. Let's be generous and say the logistics of a permanent human settlement on Mars are problematic.
Berger explains, "The problem with Mars One is that it made something extraordinarily difficult—launching people into space, caring for them on the long, hazardous journey to Mars, landing them on Mars, and then providing some sort of sustainable living conditions there—seem relatively easy. It is not."
I think eventually the mechanics of rocketry to undertake the 9 month journey and safely land human cargo, along with suitable living habitats onto the red planet will be solved. The weak link will be humans themselves.
The hopeless isolation and depression of cabin fever can be devastating to mental health. Antarctica gives us a clue. In 2018, a researcher stabbed another individual at Bellinghausen Station after suffering an 'emotional breakdown.' The two had lived together in close quarters for 6 months. There have been numerous other violent incidents on that brutal continent throughout the decades.
Transfer that angst to a permanent martian outpost and multiply it by 40 million miles to glimpse the enormous challenges of simply living a healthy life for years, if not decades, in such harsh, isolated conditions.
Add to it the fact that permanent settlements often include females, and there will be babies. Trust me on this. Problematic logistics in an isolated outpost with limited resources and growing population is an understatement. At least it won't be the Martian Chronicals. Maybe.
So what happened to Mars One? They filed for bankruptcy. Not to worry, though. Space X and NASA have their own long range plans to colonize Mars with permanent settlements, but more than likely anyone reading this will be dead by then.
"And all this science, I don't understand
It's just my job five days a week
A rocket man, a rocket man..."
