DailyDirt: People In Space

Too Much Free Time

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Tue, Oct 1st 2013 5:00pm — Michael Ho

Hundreds of thousands of people have already applied for a one-way ticket to Mars for the Mars One program to establish a human colony on the red planet by 2023. Funding for Mars One is expected to come from a reality TV show as well as sponsorships and donations -- and even IP licensing from any technology it develops along the way. Mars One appears to have collected over $150,000 in donations so far, so there's at least some interest in the concept (though the total cost for a Mars trip could easily be billions). Here are just a few more links on some other plans to get humans into space.

The odds of vasts amounts of ice existing on the moon are looking pretty grim. Without a significant amount of ice on the moon, potential lunar colonies would have to bring their own water -- and that would make it a lot more expensive to live on the moon. [url]
Mark Burnett has been pitching a reality TV show for putting contestants into space since the late 1990s, even selling a show called Destination Mir to NBC in 2000. Burnett's latest space-themed reality show would put an ordinary person on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo. [url]
Sony Pictures Television is launching a reality TV show on Dutch broadcaster Nederland 1 called Milky Way Mission that will have (local Dutch) celebrities competing for a seat on an XCOR spaceplane via the Space Expedition Corporation's (SXC) space airline. The first season will have eight 1-hr episodes that ~~will~~ might end in a blast off to an altitude of 340,000 feet. [url]
Objective Europa is an ambitious manned exploration project that aims to put people on an icy moon of Jupiter. The organizers plan to crowdfund a one-way trip to Europa, and these astronauts would face certain death even if they managed to reach Jupiter's moon. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

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Filed Under: astronauts, colony, crowdfunding, destination mir, europa, jupiter, manned exploration, mark burnett, mars one, milky way mission, moon, reality tv, space
Companies: sony pictures television, sxc, xcor

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out_of_the_blue, 1 Oct 2013 @ 5:09pm

Billions short, cuts no ice, two TV shows, and certain death.
And it's still the most interesting piece since early this morning.

Techdirt! When tired of substance, get fluffed here!
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Rapnel (profile), 1 Oct 2013 @ 5:49pm

Re: Billions short, cuts no ice, two TV shows, and certain death.
Hey, I hear Politico is looking for another thought provoking hack in their commentary.
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Ninja (profile), 2 Oct 2013 @ 3:22am

After reading about the Jupiter moon issue I'd say that the main issue we face nowadays to explore and settle in other worlds is energy. Once we find a source that can produce substantial energy using little space and resources (yep, nuclear comes to mind but not as it is today) then we will easily go anywhere. With energy you can recycle waste and effluents, you can grow food even in icy and dark places and many more benefits (if the planet has enough water then it's a bonus!).

Once we reach that point all that'll be left is the psychological issues of being isolated for long, not having sunlight at all etc.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Oct 2013 @ 5:00am

Re:
There are plenty of remaining technological hurdles to maintaining life in space over extended periods - beyond the psychological issues.
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