Colonize The Planet Plan

Plans for Mars permanent base

WASHINGTON - About 40 volunteers from thousands who applied for a one-way ticket to Mars gathered in the US capital to hear from the man behind plans to colonise the Red Planet.

   Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp plans to establish a permanent base on Mars in a mission he hopes will take off in 2022 if he can get US$6 billion in funds. Nasa has expressed scepticism about the viability of the plan


AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

I'm in. Always wanted to fuck a Martian. :D

Evidence of ancient freshwater lake on Mars

A Nasa illustration shows the location and possible size of the lake. The arrows show the direction the water flowed from the cater into the basin.

SAN FRANCISCO - Scientists have found evidence of an ancient freshwater lake on Mars well suited to support microbial life, the researchers said.

   The 3.5 billion-year-old lake, now dry, may have been an ecosystem where life could thrive, according to an analysis of data collected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (Nasa) Curiosity rover.

   The lake is located inside Gale Crater, where the rover landed in August last year. It likely covered an area 50 km long and 5km wide, the researchers said on Monday.

   "We've come to appreciate that is a habitable system of environments that includes the lake, the associated streams and, at times when the lake was dry, the groundwater," California Institute of Technology geologist John Grotzinger said at the American Geophysical Union conference.

   The lake could have supported a simple class of rock-eating microbes, known as chemolithoautotrophs, which on Earth are commonly found in caves and hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor, Professor Grotzinger said.

   Curiosity next will seek signs of organic carbon - a sign of past micro-organisms that have decayed, he said.

   The finding may mean that life evolved on the planet and may still be there, said astronomy professor Arlin Crotts of Columbia University, who was not involved in the report.

   "I wouldn't be shocked if these things ever got started that they're still there, hundreds of metres below the surface."

REUTERS, BLOOMBERG

She dreams of the Red Planet

French journalist among 200,000 volunteers for $7.6b Mars colonisation project

SPACE JUNKIE: Ms Florence Porcel, the French candidate of the Mars One settlement project. An artist's rendition of a settlement on Mars.

A comfortable, middle-class Parisian life may be the envy of many people, but Ms Florence Porcel, 30, would give it all up to be among the first Earthlings to settle on Mars - even with no option of return.

"I have always felt a bit cramped on Earth," the self-confessed space junkie told AFP, delighted to be shortlisted with some 1,000 other aspiring voyagers for Mar One - a private project to colonise the Red Planet from 2024.

   "I have always dreamt of exploring other worlds," the journalist said.

   She is among about 200,000 people from around the world who volunteered for the extraordinary project. It would see two dozen pioneers abandon Earth for a new start on a cold, dry, oxygenless planet some 55 million km away.

   The cost of the project, an estimated US$6 billion dollars, precludes the option of a return trip.

   The trial resettlement is meant mainly funded by a reality-TV show about the project.

   The final 24 would be sent to the Red Planet in six separate launches starting in 10 years, said the Dutch-based non-profit group behind the endeavour.

   A total of 1,058 shortlisted candidates from 140 countries were informed on Dec 30 that they had made the first cut after going through an online vetting process that included an extensive questionnaire.

   Mar One said the criteria include an "indomitable spirit", "good judgment" and "a good sense of play". The interplanetary pioneers must also be disease and drug-free, and English-speaking.

   The list will be finalised next year after further medical and psychological tests.

PROJECT'S FEASIBILITY

Many experts scoff at the project's feasibility, questioning whether the participants would survive the physical perils and demands on their sanity.

   Ms Porcel said she was under no illusions about the challenge.

   "We will be trying to survive on a hostile planet: Even breathing, drinking and eating won't be a given. We will need a lot of hard work, energy and expertise...also some luck!" she said.

   A world away from the life that awaits the pioneers - growing their own food in air-locked pods protecting them from Mars' thin, unbreathable atmosphere and sub-zero temperatures - the decor in Ms Porcel's small apartment near Paris is cosy and girly.

   But her life's passion is evident from the heavy sprinkling of space paraphernalia in-between - a hanging mobile of the Solar System, photos of the journalist floating in a zero-gravity experimental flight, and a large collection of books on astrophysics.

   She said: "I would really love to help find answers to some of Mankind's existential questions...

   "I am part of a generation that hasn't seen a human set foot on a celestial body other than Earth", since the end of the Moon missions in 1972.

   "If Mars One gives me the chance, I will do it! It will be a first for mankind!" she said, adding she had no plans to settle down or have children.

   But there are doubts, too.

   "For now, I am ready to see this through. If I make it to the final 24 and find myself on the launch pad...perhaps it will be different..." said Ms Porcel.

   "I reserve the right to change my mind."

CEO : "I WANT TO BE MORE VISIONARY THAN ELON MUSK. ALL HE DOES IS BUILD SPACESHIPS AND ELECTRIC CARS.

I WANT YOU TO BUILD ME AN ELECTRIC ROCKET SHIP FULL OF ROBOTS THAT CAN COLONIZE OTHER WORLDS.

WHICH PLANET SHOULD WE DO FIRST?"

Engineer : "DEPENDS HOW LONG THE POWER CORD IS."