It's a godawful small affair
February 11, 2019 4:16 PM Subscribe
Mars One Ventures is liquidating - the future of the organization is uncertain. Is the Mars One Foundation shutting down? After years of skepticism, criticism, and outright accusations of being a suicide mission, Mars One may be folding.
ArsTechnica Reports
Commercial Register
Wikipedia
Mars One previously.
ArsTechnica Reports
Commercial Register
Wikipedia
Mars One previously.
(I think the ArsTechnica link should go here).
posted by pompomtom at 4:22 PM on February 11, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by pompomtom at 4:22 PM on February 11, 2019 [1 favorite]
(I think the ArsTechnica link should go here).
Oh oops - you're right, can I get mod patch?
posted by aspersioncast at 4:23 PM on February 11, 2019 [1 favorite]
Oh oops - you're right, can I get mod patch?
posted by aspersioncast at 4:23 PM on February 11, 2019 [1 favorite]
See, if you had posted from Mars, it would’ve taken 3 whole minutes each way for the mods to correct the link.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 4:48 PM on February 11, 2019 [10 favorites]
posted by Huffy Puffy at 4:48 PM on February 11, 2019 [10 favorites]
Maybe they could try again, but this time with a cryptocurrency?
posted by zompist at 4:52 PM on February 11, 2019 [15 favorites]
posted by zompist at 4:52 PM on February 11, 2019 [15 favorites]
well there goes my retirement plan, which was to die an agonizing asphyxiating death in the throes of madness as the First King of Mars
That would make for an incredible novel. Rich idiots trapped inside a claustrophobic, low-budget Mars habitat, literally killing each other over the last packet of freeze-dried eggs.
posted by dephlogisticated at 5:15 PM on February 11, 2019 [3 favorites]
That would make for an incredible novel. Rich idiots trapped inside a claustrophobic, low-budget Mars habitat, literally killing each other over the last packet of freeze-dried eggs.
posted by dephlogisticated at 5:15 PM on February 11, 2019 [3 favorites]
over the last packet of freeze-dried eggs
astronaut ice cream, surely
posted by kokaku at 5:41 PM on February 11, 2019 [7 favorites]
astronaut ice cream, surely
posted by kokaku at 5:41 PM on February 11, 2019 [7 favorites]
I always assumed this was basically a pyramid scheme. And not like the good kind of Mars pyramid full of oxygen for Arnold Schwarzenegger to release.
posted by rodlymight at 5:43 PM on February 11, 2019 [11 favorites]
posted by rodlymight at 5:43 PM on February 11, 2019 [11 favorites]
The textbook definition of "Failure To Launch"?
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:47 PM on February 11, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:47 PM on February 11, 2019 [5 favorites]
Could've been the pyramid that Sutekh built to contain his sarcophagus/portal, but then of course they could actually get to Mars with that.
posted by pompomtom at 5:57 PM on February 11, 2019 [11 favorites]
posted by pompomtom at 5:57 PM on February 11, 2019 [11 favorites]
That commercial register website is a thing of beauty.
On the bright side, a debt paid is a friend kept!
posted by haemanu at 6:00 PM on February 11, 2019
On the bright side, a debt paid is a friend kept!
posted by haemanu at 6:00 PM on February 11, 2019
This adventure would have been so much more dystopian if they'd launched everyone...and then suddenly been revealed to have been fly-by-night and unreliable and ill conceived and went out of business (with a motley crew aboard some hacked together doomed spacecraft).
posted by trackofalljades at 7:29 PM on February 11, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by trackofalljades at 7:29 PM on February 11, 2019 [1 favorite]
rodlymight: "I always assumed this was basically a pyramid scheme. And not like the good kind of Mars pyramid full of oxygen for Arnold Schwarzenegger to release."
GIVE DESE PEEPUHL AIH, COHAGEN!
posted by Chrysostom at 7:36 PM on February 11, 2019 [12 favorites]
GIVE DESE PEEPUHL AIH, COHAGEN!
posted by Chrysostom at 7:36 PM on February 11, 2019 [12 favorites]
Talk of mars colonization is one of my Van Halen M&M competence trip wires.
posted by srboisvert at 8:16 PM on February 11, 2019 [9 favorites]
posted by srboisvert at 8:16 PM on February 11, 2019 [9 favorites]
This is my lack of surprise face.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:33 PM on February 11, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:33 PM on February 11, 2019 [3 favorites]
trackofalljades, while that would certainly fill me with schadenfreude, I'd rather have an office that doesn't involve watching people die horrible space-deaths. No, far better if Mars One instead rigged up a sealed biodome fake Mars for their prospective Martians to live in unawares, only to emerge in bewilderment a few decades later.
posted by Panjandrum at 2:12 AM on February 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Panjandrum at 2:12 AM on February 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
I have a friend who got like ten Mars One hoodies so she is always wearing one.
They look super cool, and I guess now also have a retro appeal.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 3:39 AM on February 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
They look super cool, and I guess now also have a retro appeal.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 3:39 AM on February 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
I know that for everyone here, it was obvious from the start that Mars One was never going to fly. What really gets my goat is the utter gullibility of the media. Here are a few of the articles from The Guardian:
22 Apr 2013: Life on Mars to become a reality in 2023, Dutch firm claims
19 Jan 2014: Why we want to spend the rest of our lives on Mars
9 Feb 2015: Mars One mission: a one-way trip to the red planet in 2024
17 Feb 2015: Mars One shortlist: the top 10 hopefuls
19 Feb 2015: Why I want to be a passenger on Mars One
30 May 2015: Can Mars One colonise the red planet?
It was obviously complete bullshit from the start, anyone with a smidge of technical or scientific background said so repeatedly, so why they did write about it so many times? Yes, I know the proximate reasons – Mars One had a good PR agency, The Guardian wants clicks, etc. But The Guardian is meant to be a good, trustworthy news source, and here they were giving credibility to what I can only describe as a scam artist, or at best, a completely deluded entrepreneur.
It should never have gotten as far as it did, and I blame the media for this.
posted by adrianhon at 4:13 AM on February 12, 2019 [16 favorites]
22 Apr 2013: Life on Mars to become a reality in 2023, Dutch firm claims
19 Jan 2014: Why we want to spend the rest of our lives on Mars
9 Feb 2015: Mars One mission: a one-way trip to the red planet in 2024
17 Feb 2015: Mars One shortlist: the top 10 hopefuls
19 Feb 2015: Why I want to be a passenger on Mars One
30 May 2015: Can Mars One colonise the red planet?
It was obviously complete bullshit from the start, anyone with a smidge of technical or scientific background said so repeatedly, so why they did write about it so many times? Yes, I know the proximate reasons – Mars One had a good PR agency, The Guardian wants clicks, etc. But The Guardian is meant to be a good, trustworthy news source, and here they were giving credibility to what I can only describe as a scam artist, or at best, a completely deluded entrepreneur.
It should never have gotten as far as it did, and I blame the media for this.
posted by adrianhon at 4:13 AM on February 12, 2019 [16 favorites]
well there goes my retirement plan, which was to die an agonizing asphyxiating death in the throes of madness as the First King of Mars
A real king of Mars wouldn't give up so easily.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:57 AM on February 12, 2019 [4 favorites]
A real king of Mars wouldn't give up so easily.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:57 AM on February 12, 2019 [4 favorites]
No, far better if Mars One instead rigged up a sealed biodome fake Mars for their prospective Martians to live in unawares, only to emerge in bewilderment a few decades later.
I'm thinking they go into the biodome but then a nuclear war devastates Earth outside, so by the time they discover the deception and escape the real world is also an unliveable wasteland.
posted by tobascodagama at 5:16 AM on February 12, 2019 [4 favorites]
I'm thinking they go into the biodome but then a nuclear war devastates Earth outside, so by the time they discover the deception and escape the real world is also an unliveable wasteland.
posted by tobascodagama at 5:16 AM on February 12, 2019 [4 favorites]
Well, it was always a scam but I still see no reason to object to the basic concept of a one way trip and I'd sign up for one if it wasn't being promoted by such an obvious scam.
I mean, hell, that's how humanity spreads: via one way trips. Our biggest mistake wasn't going to the moon, it was coming back from the moon.
That said, there is really no way to do a trip to Mars, one way or round trip, without spending several trillion dollars on infrastructure in space.
To make any serious effort at a Mars trip is going to require a truly reusable Earth to Low Earth Orbit vehicle, a decent sized space station in LEO, a viable colony on the moon to mine resources there because lifting aluminum up from Earth to build the Mars ship is going to be vastly more expensive than setting up a (mostly) self sustaining colony on the moon and the lunar colony will give us valuable research into building long term sealed habitats for canned apes, and then building a Mars ship in orbit.
Or.... and sadly much more likely, we can make a very unserious effort at doing it that will cost more, be horribly dangerous and likely result in many deaths, and give us exactly the same nothing at all in terms of long term benefit that the 1960's moon shot did.
You could, in theory, launch a few unmanned cargo ships from Earth that would (at hideous expense) carry both their cargo and the fuel needed for a slow trip to Mars. Then, after that, you could build a dinky little tin can, boost it up from Earth and a few extra trips boosting up some fuel, cram two or three people into the tin can for the next 8.5 months with barely enough room to get in some isometric exercises to try and keep from losing too much muscle mass, land on Mars, use the supplies you sent ahead to live for the months it'd take for the planets to get back into position for a return Hohmann orbit, and then cram back into the tin can for another 8.5 months back.
And just like the Apollo mission that'd let you "win the space race" with the added bonus of producing no useful infrastructure and not starting human expansion off Earth, and of course a huge risk of one tiny thing going wrong in the tiny little tin can and the astronauts dying horribly. Naturally that's how we'll do it, because god fucking forbid we do anything the smart way that actually builds infrastructure and lets us begin taking some baby steps to getting our species off Earth.
posted by sotonohito at 6:33 AM on February 12, 2019 [5 favorites]
I mean, hell, that's how humanity spreads: via one way trips. Our biggest mistake wasn't going to the moon, it was coming back from the moon.
That said, there is really no way to do a trip to Mars, one way or round trip, without spending several trillion dollars on infrastructure in space.
To make any serious effort at a Mars trip is going to require a truly reusable Earth to Low Earth Orbit vehicle, a decent sized space station in LEO, a viable colony on the moon to mine resources there because lifting aluminum up from Earth to build the Mars ship is going to be vastly more expensive than setting up a (mostly) self sustaining colony on the moon and the lunar colony will give us valuable research into building long term sealed habitats for canned apes, and then building a Mars ship in orbit.
Or.... and sadly much more likely, we can make a very unserious effort at doing it that will cost more, be horribly dangerous and likely result in many deaths, and give us exactly the same nothing at all in terms of long term benefit that the 1960's moon shot did.
You could, in theory, launch a few unmanned cargo ships from Earth that would (at hideous expense) carry both their cargo and the fuel needed for a slow trip to Mars. Then, after that, you could build a dinky little tin can, boost it up from Earth and a few extra trips boosting up some fuel, cram two or three people into the tin can for the next 8.5 months with barely enough room to get in some isometric exercises to try and keep from losing too much muscle mass, land on Mars, use the supplies you sent ahead to live for the months it'd take for the planets to get back into position for a return Hohmann orbit, and then cram back into the tin can for another 8.5 months back.
And just like the Apollo mission that'd let you "win the space race" with the added bonus of producing no useful infrastructure and not starting human expansion off Earth, and of course a huge risk of one tiny thing going wrong in the tiny little tin can and the astronauts dying horribly. Naturally that's how we'll do it, because god fucking forbid we do anything the smart way that actually builds infrastructure and lets us begin taking some baby steps to getting our species off Earth.
posted by sotonohito at 6:33 AM on February 12, 2019 [5 favorites]
Mars One could live again thanks to a mystery investor
According to Mars One, its new investor will announce its plans at a press conference to be held at an as-yet undetermined location on March 6th.
posted by zakur at 7:28 AM on February 12, 2019
According to Mars One, its new investor will announce its plans at a press conference to be held at an as-yet undetermined location on March 6th.
posted by zakur at 7:28 AM on February 12, 2019
sotonohito: Seems like almost all the big players are focused on cislunar infrastructure right now, with varying degrees of credibility. It's really only Musk who's pushing the humans to Mars ASAP thing.
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 7:33 AM on February 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 7:33 AM on February 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
“Mr. Drax, why did you decide to purchase Mars One?”
posted by Huffy Puffy at 7:33 AM on February 12, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by Huffy Puffy at 7:33 AM on February 12, 2019 [4 favorites]
far better if Mars One instead rigged up a sealed biodome fake Mars for their prospective Martians to live in unawares, only to emerge in bewilderment a few decades later.
This is the plot of a story, but I can't for the life of me remember what. Bradbury? Does one of the KSM books do this before the actual colonization attempt?
posted by aspersioncast at 7:50 AM on February 12, 2019
This is the plot of a story, but I can't for the life of me remember what. Bradbury? Does one of the KSM books do this before the actual colonization attempt?
posted by aspersioncast at 7:50 AM on February 12, 2019
Mars One could live again thanks to a mystery investor
Fuck you Elon.
posted by aspersioncast at 7:51 AM on February 12, 2019
Fuck you Elon.
posted by aspersioncast at 7:51 AM on February 12, 2019
There's an interesting bit in that press release that Mars One put out:
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:59 AM on February 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
Once out of administration, Mars One will redirect its focus. For the execution of the actual voyage to Mars, the company will continue to seek strategic collaboration with renowned companies and organizations involved with the travel to Mars. Mars One itself will focus on the even more inspiring “being there”, the adventurous story of humans actually living on Mars, making The Red Planet their new home.The whole idea of a "marketing machine", seeming to assume (or at least publicly stating) that this thing could still happen, makes me wonder if the ultimate upshot for Mars One is simply to sell its list of applicants to companies who will keep reselling the dream to the people who were willing to pay for the privilege of maybe getting to be one of the people to die on Mars or even en route. The first comment on the previous FPP seems accurate, and Bas Lansdorp, as portrayed in Elmo Keep's article on Mars One, seems a lot more attached to his dream than concerned about the eventual fates of anyone who might actually get to go up. I mean, at least this way, no one will die. Probably.
Utilizing its new investment plan, Mars One Ventures will establish a marketing machine, creating continuous content about these activities, evaluated from all angles, including technological, psychological, economical, and ethical aspects.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:59 AM on February 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
I'd consider a one way trip to Mars if they promised to land me by one of those cuter Rovers. That would be fun!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:23 AM on February 12, 2019
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:23 AM on February 12, 2019
The Ars update also notes that the bankruptcy "does not affect the non-profit Mars One Foundation."
posted by aspersioncast at 12:53 PM on February 12, 2019
posted by aspersioncast at 12:53 PM on February 12, 2019
Does one of the KSM books do this before the actual colonization attempt?
I'm pretty sure Antarctica featured a sort of precursor can-we-live-in-isolation-from-the-biosphere project before Mars colonization, but can't remember if they shared characters or were on the same timeline.
Also, excellent post title.
posted by asperity at 2:35 PM on February 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
I'm pretty sure Antarctica featured a sort of precursor can-we-live-in-isolation-from-the-biosphere project before Mars colonization, but can't remember if they shared characters or were on the same timeline.
Also, excellent post title.
posted by asperity at 2:35 PM on February 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
The Mars trilogy does indeed mention Antarctica as a Mars mission precursor, and it does include all the members of the First Hundred (it's their training scenario, basically). Crucially, though, everyone knows exactly what's going on. No one thinks Antarctica is actually Mars.
There was actually a television series that covered this ground, but telling you which one would be a spoiler. (Mods, please feel free to remove this comment if even this is too spoiler-y, though chances are way higher that no one will know what the hell I'm talking about.)
posted by chrominance at 6:39 PM on February 13, 2019
There was actually a television series that covered this ground, but telling you which one would be a spoiler. (Mods, please feel free to remove this comment if even this is too spoiler-y, though chances are way higher that no one will know what the hell I'm talking about.)
posted by chrominance at 6:39 PM on February 13, 2019
I swear it was a book though, although I know the series you mean. Maybe I'm just mixing up two plots. At any rate, it appears Mars One may live to grift again!
posted by aspersioncast at 8:22 AM on February 14, 2019
posted by aspersioncast at 8:22 AM on February 14, 2019
I'm still too lazy to look it up, but with that prompting, IIRC the Mars trilogy had some stuff about the characters' training in Antarctica, but then KSR wrote a standalone later (Antarctica) featuring more on that idea. But I can't remember who was in that one or whether it was explicitly a Mars prequel.
I only remember the most recent KSR book I've read, apparently. I liked New York 2140.
posted by asperity at 10:31 AM on February 14, 2019
I only remember the most recent KSR book I've read, apparently. I liked New York 2140.
posted by asperity at 10:31 AM on February 14, 2019
Meanwhile in actual non-fiction Mars exploration, they've finally given up on Opportunity, an incredibly robust and over-engineered vehicle which traveled a whopping 45.16 kilometers before expiring.
Humans aren't colonizing Mars within the lifetime of anyone now alive, and the sooner people get over that idea the sooner we can get back to figuring out what to do about keeping the actual planet we live on hospitable to human life.
(This is not to say we shouldn't be spending time on Mars exploration, it's just . . . priorities, people.)
posted by aspersioncast at 12:08 PM on February 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
Humans aren't colonizing Mars within the lifetime of anyone now alive, and the sooner people get over that idea the sooner we can get back to figuring out what to do about keeping the actual planet we live on hospitable to human life.
(This is not to say we shouldn't be spending time on Mars exploration, it's just . . . priorities, people.)
posted by aspersioncast at 12:08 PM on February 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
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