WASHINGTON: In 1997 a young Dutch student had a dream. “I saw the pictures beamed back from Mars by Nasa’s Sojourner rover,” Bas Lansdorp, now 37, remembers, “and I just had the feeling that I wanted to go there myself and explore.”
Now Mr Lansdorp, who is the founder and chief executive of the Mars One project, says he is at last beginning to turn dream into reality. This week he announced a shortlist of 100 volunteers for a televised one-way mission to create the first human colony on the Red Planet.
Yesterday, he had more news. A “consortium of investment companies” had approached him. “We are working on closing a deal. Over a number of years, they are looking to finance the entire $6bn [£3.9bn] needed to get us up to the 2024 launch of the mission and the TV show. It’s very exciting.”
Four pioneers have now been selected from among the 100. And thanks to Endemol, the TV company behind Big Brother, their every move will apparently be watched by a TV audience of four billion.
“It will be as if Marco Polo had a camera on his journeys of exploration. Every human being with access to the internet or television will be watching.” He adds: “I am convinced there is no better way to make the world a better place than a manned mission to Mars.”
Not everyone agrees. At the International Space University in Strasbourg, Professor Chris Welch offered “just a small snapshot” of the scepticism that has poured forth.
“Untimely death is virtually certain,” he says. “They will either die on the way to Mars or die in pretty short order when they get there. I worry it will all end horribly and set back the public appetite for manned space exploration for decades.
“There are so many unknowns. They will be completely alone with technology that hasn’t been tested on Mars, but is expected to work perfectly.”
With four pioneers confined together, perhaps for years on end, in small habitation modules, cabin fever is a real risk. “They could become depressed, suicidal, homicidal,” says Professor Welch.
Tesla driverless system to use updated radar technology
WASHINGTON: Electric carmaker Tesla announced Sunday it was upgrading its Autopilot software to use more advanced radar technology. In a...
