Mars is waiting for billionaires to set up colonies on its soil

Mars One had outlined its plans for the first batch of four pioneers to land on the Red Planet in 2027 on a one-way journey. Already, persons have been chosen and are undergoing training to prepare themselves mentally and physically to settle down on an alien planet.
However, the biggest challenges facing the project are more financial in nature rather than technical. Obviously, the need of the hour is for a big donation from a deep-pocketed person.
This has been reported in space.com dated 25 August 2015.

Mars One co-founder and CEO Bas Lansdorp, is a worried man. His ideas are fine and theoretically feasible but finance is a matter of worry. It is not the goal to send humans to Mars in 2027 with a $6 billion budget and 14 launches but, rather, to send humans to Mars.
The organization wants to send up a Mars lander and an orbiting communications satellite in 2020. This would be followed by a scouting rover and second commsat (which will circle the sun instead of the Red Planet) in 2022. Then will come six separate cargo missions in 2024 – these missions would loft a second rover, two human habitats, two life-support units and a "supply unit."
As per estimates, these activities plus the landing of the first four astronauts on the Red Planet in 2027, will add up to about $6 billion. Already, the dates have shifted – the initial plan was to put boots on Mars in 2023, it was shifted to 2025, and now 2027.
If only someone like Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates or Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim Helu decided to finance it, they could have settlements like Gatesville or Slim City up there on the Red Planet Mars.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)


Some more interesting 'must reads'-

Anaconda in a pothole of Bengaluru to galvanize the authorities to act

Cochin airport goes ecofriendly – to become only solar powered airport in the world

V Festival in Chelmsford could face tornadoes, hail and thunderstorms


Ice Cube would love to have dinner with Barack Obama once he leaves White House

Indian names of Pallavi Sharda and Dev Patel in Hollywood film ‘Lion’

Hugh Jackman of Wolverine fame could portray the role of Greek hero Odysseus


White House discloses – 2nd in command of ISIS killed in drone strike in Mosul

Bomb blast outside temple of Lord Brahma in Bangkok leaves at least 27 dead

Scuba diver smuggles cocaine across US-Mexico border via underwater tunnel


Indian kitchens must have ‘besan’

The lost world of ‘kabiraji cutlets’

Growing up days – I begin to go to the daily market

Mars One CEO Bas Lansdorp denies allegations but admits to delays

#baslansdorp #marsone #redplanet Mars One CEO Bas Lansdorp has admitted that his project of sending humans to Mars is getting delayed by two years and will now go into 2026 and he has put the blame of adequate investment funding. In his own words - the lack of investment funding has slowed down work on a robotic precursor mission that was to have been sent towards the Red Planet Mars in 2018.
This has been reported in space.com dated 17 March 2015.
Bas Lansdorp has also commented on allegations of astrophysicist Joseph Roche, a former Mars One astronaut candidate. Joseph had alleged that the organization was selecting its astronauts based on their ability to donate to the cause. Joseph Roche had also indicated that the selection process of Mars One was flawed and slipshod.
Moreover, Elmo Keep, the author of an article had alleged that Mars One received just 2,761 applications from prospective Red Planet settlers, and not the 202,000 that had been claimed by the organization.
However, Lansdorp does not agree to these allegations. He asserts that money has nothing to do with the selection process, and that the number of candidates who had applied for Mars One project were accurate.

A few more must reads -

Nashik Kumbhmela 2015 – a once in 12-years pilgrimage

Trip to Nashik should take in Shirdi and the Ajanta and Ellora caves

Nashik, a tourist center with links to the epic Ramayana

Nashik, a tourist center with links to the Mahabharata

Kumbhmela 2015 in Nashik – guided tours to wineries and vineyards

Nashik transforms from a place of pilgrimage to an industrial hub


First Russian woman cosmonaut returns to Earth after six-month stay in ISS

European court terms obesity as a disability

Health tips – lose weight without dieting

Sunshine means Vitamin D – good for health in measured dose

2014 – The year of Mars Missions

#missiontomars #maven #mangalyaan #baslansdorp #methane 2014 was a year with its dose of plus and minuses, highs and lows and, as we near the last phase of 2014, we can look back on a few of these incidents that made us feel better while a few of these made us cry our hearts out praying to God Almighty that such incidents should never happen again.
On the bright side, the top of the list would naturally go to Mission Mars – Man is desperate to search out an alternate planet for migration because Planet Earth is saturated from all angles. Increase in population coupled with reduction in natural assets is forcing people to wonder what could be in store for us in another hundred years from now. Hence, focus is on the Red Planet Mars which is believed to have had life forms at some point of time in the past. MARS ONE Human Settlement on Mars –
The Netherlands-based non-profit organization Mars One of Bas Lansdorp has plans to send four people to the Red Planet in 2024 – these pioneers would set up human settlement on the Red Planet. It would be a one-way ticket and already over 200,000 have expressed their intention to sign up. As Bas Lansdorp, Mars One Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, has explained – water exists in the form of "water-ice" and the pioneers would have to generate oxygen and create a breathable environment. Nitrogen would come from the Martian atmosphere.
NASAs Curiosity rover – this robot is trudging along inch by inch on the rough terrain of Mars, it continues to send back to Earth exciting news once in a while – and, its latest one regarding the find of methane has made the expedition more interesting. Scientists believe that where there is methane, there should be life, it cannot be too far off.
MAVEN - early discoveries by NASA's newest Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission, has been revealing new facts – this Mars orbiter has found key features about the loss of the planet's atmosphere to space over time. MAVEN has entered its science phase on Nov. 16 and its findings indicate a new process by which the solar wind can penetrate deep into a planetary atmosphere.
MANGALYAAN - this is India’s entry into the Mars race. In September 2014, ISRO was on a high when it successfully launched the Mangalyaan or Mars Orbiter Mission or MOM. It is a low-cost Mars spacecraft in orbit around the red planet and it succeeded in its very first attempt thus entering into the elite club of three nations.
So far, European, American and Russian probes have either orbited or landed on the planet – that to. Not on the first tempt. The first Chinese Mars mission, called Yinghuo-1, failed in 2011 and, in 1998, the Japanese mission ran out of fuel and was lost.