Recently scientists have been getting excited about the
prospects of us living on Mars, and it seems that we are closer than ever to
achieving this goal. 100 people have been selected as finalists for the Mars
One martian astronaut corps and so from these people, 50 men and 50 women, some
could be the first humans on Mars. These people would theoretically travel to,
work on and then die on Mars without ever being back on Earth as soon as they
have started their journey. These people would feature in a reality T.V. show
However some say that this project is naïve and stands no
chance of reaching its launch date of 2018 and so now the organisers have to
make a choice, push for the unlikely chance of being ready to launch in 2018,
or have a two year delay and take the launch date to 2020, which is the next
chance to attempt the launch. A major factor in the unlikeliness of this is
that Mars One tried to raise $400,000 but they didn't meet this target. Another
factor could be that the two companies working on the mission: Lockheed Martin,
who have completed a study of the concept of this mission and Surrey
Satellites, who have designed the orbiter have suspended all of their research
for now and Mars One have not contacted either company after completing their
studies.
Mars One have claimed that all the technology needed for
this mission has already been developed, but studies conducted looking into
this information have concluded this is not true and the cost to develop it all
is astronomical and so it is very unlikely to happen. To sustain this mission
the T.V. Show would have to be very, very profitable indeed. Further research
has shown that there are high risks of the candidates suffering badly from
things such as vulnerability to radiation, starvation and possible illness or
allergies from things we don't know about or can do anything to protect
ourselves from.
At the moment, it looks like it is very optimistic that the
Mars One mission is going to happen, however we are slowly going in the
direction of life on Mars, as NASA are keen to put humans on Mars before 2030.