Mars One Scam?

[Joseph C.]

Mars One Finalist Explains Exactly How It‘s Ripping Off Supporters
No money, no process, no explanation: An insider speaks out on the hopelessly flawed scheme.

By Elmo Keep

When Joseph first signed up with Mars One — the media-hyped, one-way mission to colonize the red planet being floated by a Dutch non-profit — he didn’t think much of it. The former NASA researcher said he never really took the application seriously; he was just putting his hat in the ring mostly out of curiosity, and with the hope of bringing public attention to space science.

But eventually Joseph — who is actually Dr. Joseph Roche, an assistant professor at Trinity College’s School of Education in Dublin, with a Ph.D. in physics and astrophysics — found himself on the group’s shortlist of 100 candidates all willing to undertake the theoretical journey. And that’s when he started talking to me about the big problems he was seeing with Mars One.

It was difficult for him to break his silence, but he was spurred into speaking out by the uncritical news coverage. Many basic assumptions about the project remain unchallenged. Most egregiously, many media outlets continue to report that Mars One received applications from 200,000 people who would be happy to die on another planet — when the number it actually received was 2,761.

As Roche observed the process from an insider’s perspective, his concerns increased. Chief among them: that some leading contenders for the mission had bought their way into that position, and are being encouraged to “donate” any appearance fees back to Mars One — which seemed to him very strange for an outfit that needs billions of dollars to complete its objective.

“When you join the ‘Mars One Community,’ which happens automatically if you applied as a candidate, they start giving you points,” Roche explained to me in an email. “You get points for getting through each round of the selection process (but just an arbitrary number of points, not anything to do with ranking), and then the only way to get more points is to buy merchandise from Mars One or to donate money to them.”.....

https://medium.com/matter/mars-one-insider-quits-dangerously-flawed-project-2dfef95217d3

The salient facts:

So, here are the facts as we understand them: Mars One has almost no money. Mars One has no contracts with private aerospace suppliers who are building technology for future deep-space missions. Mars One has no TV production partner. Mars One has no publicly known investment partnerships with major brands. Mars One has no plans for a training facility where its candidates would prepare themselves. Mars One’s candidates have been vetted by a single person, in a 10-minute Skype interview.

“My nightmare about it is that people continue to support it and give it money and attention, and it then gets to the point where it inevitably falls on its face,” said Roche. If, as a result, “people lose faith in NASA and possibly even in scientists, then that’s the polar opposite of what I’m about. If I was somehow linked to something that could do damage to the public perception of science, that is my nightmare scenario.”

 

[Punx0r]

It always seemed like a ridiculous idea: "reality" TV meets space exploration.

 

[Dauntless]

So this woman showed up as a guest speaker claiming to be a finalist to go to Mars with these people. This being a sort of supermodel looking blonde woman. She has a little speile about how it will be difficult and Mars is different that the Earth. "There won't be any air to breathe," she revealed. Along with a few other breathless revelations. It got even better when the questions started:

Basically the questions revolved around building a spacecraft and/or a base. I asked which of the row of cubicles in the picture was the outhouse; she didnt know. The basic theme of the answers were 'I don't know, I don't really do any of that. They're going to build the space ship and I hope I'll get to go to Mars.'

The best response came when someone I know asked "How did you get to be a finalist? " He kind of looked around the room smiling because she didn't seem to get what he was really asking. She didn't say anything about them getting paid for appearances and turning the money in but she did make a push for contributions. With just a little explanation of THAT we'd could have guessed for ourselves why there was talk of sending an airhead supermodel type to Mars.

She apparently has continued to volunteer to come back and speak to the group again. I'm not sure if she gets lost or is told to but she doesn't turn up again.

 

[The fingers]

So this woman showed up as a guest speaker claiming to be a finalist to go to Mars with these people. This being a sort of supermodel looking blonde woman. She has a little speile about how it will be difficult and Mars is different that the Earth. "There won't be any air to breathe," she revealed. Along with a few other breathless revelations. It got even better when the questions started:

Basically the questions revolved around building a spacecraft and/or a base. I asked which of the row of cubicles in the picture was the outhouse; she didnt know. The basic theme of the answers were 'I don't know, I don't really do any of that. They're going to build the space ship and I hope I'll get to go to Mars.'

The best response came when someone I know asked "How did you get to be a finalist? " He kind of looked around the room smiling because she didn't seem to get what he was really asking. She didn't say anything about them getting paid for appearances and turning the money in but she did make a push for contributions. With just a little explanation of THAT we'd could have guessed for ourselves why there was talk of sending an airhead supermodel type to Mars.

She apparently has continued to volunteer to come back and speak to the group again. I'm not sure if she gets lost or is told to but she doesn't turn up again.

She sounds like a real Pluto Pup. :lol:

 

[granolaboy]

Wow. Sometimes I'm glad I pay so little attention to mainstream media. I completely miss stuff like this.

What I'm not clear on is how anyone with even a shred of intelligence could think this was not a scam? There is absolutely nothing credible about it...the idea doesn't even make sense...like...

 

[Dauntless]

Wow. Sometimes I'm glad I pay so little attention to mainstream media. I completely miss stuff like this.

What???? You're missing out on all the FUN! These people could have a reality TV show, which of course would help with their fundraising. I picture all the comments of 'They couldn't really be THAT stupid. . .' (A LA 'Tickle' on the moonshiner show.) '. . . .This has gotta be fake!' (Like the 'Amish Mafia' has gotta be fake.)

What I'm not clear on is how anyone with even a shred of intelligence could think this was not a scam? There is absolutely nothing credible about it...the idea doesn't even make sense...like...

. . . .Like a Celebrity Deathmatch between Yoda and Marvin the Martian? I mean, what chance does Yoda and his lightsaber have against someone who survived disintegration and pitches nukes?

 

[granolaboy]

. . . .Like a Celebrity Deathmatch between Yoda and Marvin the Martian? I mean, what chance does Yoda and his lightsaber have against someone who survived disintegration and pitches nukes?

See, now that makes WAY more sense than this mission to mars nonsense...

 

[dnmun]

it is no more ridiculous than the NASA plan to send a returnable spacecraft to mars with astronauts and then try to get them back. a huge boondoggle with little chance of success. at least the dead enders can be famous if they do it.

we have two rovers on mars now that have produced 100X the information a team of dufous glory hound astroboys can ever achieve.