One-way ‘suicide mission’ to Mars even fooled first woman in space in ‘con job’

SpaceX boss Elon Musk has vowed to establish a permanent Mars colony by 2050 – but a rival bid set out to fast-track a human presence on Mars as soon as this year.

Unfortunately Mars One, a “suicide mission” for at least 10 volunteers who were willing to commit to a one-way trip to the Red Planet, was doomed to failure from the outset and has even been called a "con job" that "fooled the world".

“We will send humans to Mars in 2023,” Mars One founder Bas Lansdorp told Fox News in 2015.

“They will live there the rest of their lives. There will be a habitat waiting for them, and we’ll start sending four people every two years.”

Mars One had no spacecraft of its own, and the plan was to raise the $6billion (£4.5billion) required to fire a SpaceX “Starship” launch vehicle by pitching a reality show about the first Mars colony to TV networks.

“Our astronauts will be offered a one-way trip,” Lansdorp said.

"We have no idea when it will be possible to offer return tickets.”

Nevertheless, the company was inundated with volunteers. A reported 165,000 people applied to be Mars One’s interplanetary reality stars.

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Among them was Valentina Tereshkova. The Russian 84-year-old made history in 1963 when she became the first woman in space under the Soviet programme, and she hoped to be one of the first women on Mars.

"Of course, it's a dream to go to Mars," she told The Guardian in 2013.

"I want to find out whether there was life there or not. And if there was, then why did it die out? What sort of catastrophe happened?”

Even when it was pointed out to her that Mars One was inevitably a one-way trip, she was philosophical.

"I am ready," she said.

But not everyone was convinced.

Science writer Jonathan O'Callaghan called Mars One 'the fake mission that fooled the world', while Space Review's verdict was: "Mars One so far has come across looking at best like a bunch of naïve dreamers, and at worst like a con job".

Mars One reportedly raised tens of millions of dollars from investors who believed in the company’s goal of creating a permanent Mars settlement.

It was going to be the greatest show in the Solar System, Lansdorp hoped, saying: "Mars One should be exciting, inspiring and beautiful, just like the Olympics.”

But from the very beginning, space flight experts said Mars One had no chance of succeeding, calling it poorly conceived and “incredibly dangerous,” with little prospect of getting the first wave of colonists across the 40 million mile gulf of unforgiving, radiation-blasted space, let alone keeping them alive on the cold and airless surface of Mars.

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Olivier de Weck, an MIT professor of aeronautics and astronautics and engineering systems, poured cold water on the Mars One dream.

“We’re not saying, black and white, Mars One is infeasible,” he said.

“But we do think it’s not really feasible under the assumptions they’ve made”.

For example, according to the Mars One blueprint, the colonist should grow their own food. But in a contained environment that would produce levels of oxygen high enough to suffocate the astronauts in as little as 68 days.

Similarly, Mars One’s plan called for six Space X Falcon Heavy rockets to send up initial supplies, before the astronauts’ arrival. But scientists at MIT assessment found that number to be “overly optimistic” – driving the already unsustainable budget even higher.

And the dream is now dead. Once valued at almost $100 million. Mars One Ventures PLC, the UK-registered branch, filed for bankruptcy with less than £20,000 in its accounts in February 2019.

Still, the company’s website is still online, and claims the venture was at least a partial success:.

"We believe these seeds we planted will make it a little bit less hard for the next group that plans a permanent settlement mission to Mars,” the team wrote.

They urge anyone interested in setting up a new Mars colony to get in touch.

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