From Red Planet to deep into the red: Suicidal extrovert magnet Mars One finally implodes

The group trying to crowdfund a plan to colonization of Mars that was declared suicidal has shuttered its shop front. The Mars One project envisaged landing on Mars by 2023: it hoped to shuttle cargo over to the dust world first, followed by members of the public who had submitted successful applications for the one-way trip. …

[LordHighFixer]

EIther way

succeed or fail, I suppose the swag I got for applying will be worth something someday.

I knew they would fail when they binned my application.

[A-nonCoward]

Well played,sir Re: EIther way

I knew they would fail when they binned my application.

More obviously, when I didn't apply. Sad, i'nnit?

[Baldrickk]

Re: EIther way

What sort of swag?

[LordHighFixer]

Re: EIther way

Swag = An ill fitting t-shirt and a couple of decals/stickers.

[John Smith 19]

"reality TV "stars" dying from crash landing, habitat failure, or slow suffocation. "

That's entertainment?

[Qarumba]

Re: "reality TV "stars" dying from crash landing, habitat failure, or slow suffocation. "

Watching "reality TV "stars" dying from crash landing, habitat failure, or slow suffocation. " would have been!

[Malcolm Weir]

Re: "reality TV "stars" dying from crash landing, habitat failure, or slow suffocation. "

Of course, the alternatives include having a reality TV "star" working hard to achieve habitat failure here on earth. And he has nukes...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "reality TV "stars" dying from crash landing, habitat failure, or slow suffocation. "

Well then, you'd better get off this planet as fast as you can! ;-/

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "reality TV "stars" dying from crash landing, habitat failure, or slow suffocation. "

Still trying to figure out why this is a BAD thing.

[DCFusor]

Re: "reality TV "stars" dying from crash landing, habitat failure, or slow suffocation. "

Shame we've made it ever harder to earn the Darwin award. It's a downward spiral from there...

[The Nazz]

Re: "reality TV "stars" dying from crash landing, habitat failure, or slow suffocation. "

Better still.

"Jeremy Kyle on Location". With an extra large guest list on this weeks show.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "reality TV "stars" dying from crash landing, habitat failure, or slow suffocation. "

I'd buy that for a dollar!

[Baldrickk]

Re: "reality TV "stars" dying from crash landing, habitat failure, or slow suffocation. "

Sounds more entertaining (though I guess horrific too) than the usual dross.

[JDX]

Re: "reality TV "stars" dying from crash landing, habitat failure, or slow suffocation. "

It's a little sad that the readership of El Reg are as easily misled as everyone else. The majority of people selected were highly educated people - lots of science PhDs etc - not 8-pack-bimbos. The moment it was monickered as a "reality TV show" everyone assumed the latter and never bothered to check before making jokes.

If anything, the problem with it being a reality show was that the people selected would be a bunch of nerds - like us - not reality stars or B-Ark-folk.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "reality TV "stars" dying from crash landing, habitat failure, or slow suffocation. "

"highly educated people"

If it takes you this long to realize education doesn't make you smart then I'm sorry, off planet pour vous.

[quxinot]

Re: "reality TV "stars" dying from crash landing, habitat failure, or slow suffocation. "

Wait guys, you have this all backwards.

We've had people from show biz moving into politics. Everyone stop and name two examples....

What we need is to go the other direction. Rather than having a reality show on Mars where we watch people slowly die and winners inevitably move into politics--we need to ship politicians to Mars....

[Muscleguy]

Re: "reality TV "stars" dying from crash landing, habitat failure, or slow suffocation. "

i have a science PhD and I'm very fit but I did not even consider applying since I'm not naive but I know plenty of more Ivory Towered colleagues who could be described as naive. The process required to gain a PhD can insulate the student from various aspects of 'real life'.

I somewhat avoided that fate by getting married and reproducing while an undergrad and a young family and their needs will ground you pretty hard. Note some of the most naive people I knew were also the smartest.

Thanks for the general description of us folks as some sort of elite who could not be naive or stupid outside of our specialisations. I'll leave you with a good general rule of thumb: if a PhD is pontificating outside of his or her specialised area treat what they say with extra grains of salt. Assuming they must know what they are doing/saying because they are smart in one area is a dangerous assumption.

Also always ask to see their working and remember you can get a PhD in lots of non science subjects and these days medics who want to be Consultants do PhD's and remember medicine is trying hard and there are good areas but it still does not qualify as a science.

[GruntyMcPugh]

Re: "reality TV "stars" dying from crash landing, habitat failure, or slow suffocation. "

@Muscleguy

Indeed. I spent some time in Academia, and shared houses with PhD / Post docs while I was in my first few jobs. So, one bunch, Degree in Pharmacy, PhD in Maths/Post doc research, and a PhD chemist,... would wait for me to come back from work and fix the central heating when it went on the blink,... you know, 'cos I was the 'tecchie' (Physics/Computing BSc).

[M.V. Lipvig]

Re: "reality TV "stars" dying from crash landing, habitat failure, or slow suffocation. "

They can't be that smart if theyblooked at this and thought "What a great idea! I think I want to go!"

Let's try it on the relatively close, only 3 days away by Apollo spacecraft, already proven to be a destination we can return from Moon first. If that works, we can try the 1 year or longer away, no possible way to get back Mars.

[Dahhah6o]

"It's dead, Jim."

[Michael H.F. Wilkinson]

Or perhaps: "It's Death, Jim, but not as we know it"

"INTERESTING RED PLANET YOU HAVE HERE, REMINDS ME OF FOURECKS ON MY MORE USUAL BEAT, BUT IT'S EVEN MORE DEADLY, DESPITE THE LACK OF SPIDERS"

[Kane]

"INTERESTING RED PLANET YOU HAVE HERE, REMINDS ME OF FOURECKS ON MY MORE USUAL BEAT, BUT IT'S EVEN MORE DEADLY, DESPITE THE LACK OF SPIDERS"

Dangerous Mammals, Reptiles, Amphibians, Birds, Fish, Jellyfish, Insects, Spiders, Crustaceans, Grasses, Trees, Mosses and Lichens of Terror Incognita.

Volume 29C

Part 3

[TeraTelnet]

Shurely Mars has plenty of Spiders?

Yeah, mine's the one with Aladdin Sane in the top pocket, thanks

[BoldMan]

Ahh but is there Life on Mars?

[Flakk]

This is probably the closest that we've ever come to launching a B Ark... and we stopped it?

Well done?

[John Miles]

re: and we stopped it?

Now we wouldn't want all of us to die out from a plague spread by dirty telephones would we

[Michael H.F. Wilkinson]

Re: re: and we stopped it?

We could still send all of middle management on the Ark.

[Andy Taylor]

What does the B stand for?

I like to think that the B stands for Brexit.

[Anonymous Coward]

42 upvotes right now. :)

[JDX]

Maybe take the 30s needed to do a casual scan of the people who had made it to the short-list before repeating the joke? Each person as well as passing quite rigorous initial selection criteria would have then spent at least 4 (or was it 8?) years of intense training.

If you've actually read H2G2 and the M1 materials (I assume about 5% of people making fun of it) it's quite clear the people they were after were anything but B-ark types.

[Flakk]

Sorry to hear that Mars One was cancelled after your having made the short list.

Consider it nevertheless fortunate that this happenstance likely extended your life. I imagine that you wouldn't have made it beyond the Moon's orbit before your colleagues, thoroughly sick of your crap, pitched you out of the nearest airlock.

Resistance is useless.

[Stuart 22]

Oh ye of little faith

Bung Elon a few quid and he'll have the cargo ships landing in perfect formation and a solar weed farm ready to relax the incoming wannabee celebs.

The only flaw I can see is when channel 4 decides to cancel the fifth series 'cos a Pluto drive-by is so much cooler. Or would that lead to a Martian Scraphyard Challenge as we watch them attempt to build a return rocket home from bits of Beagle 2 and other assorted wreckage.

[Chris G]

Apparently

Mr Lansdorp now has a selection of bridges for sale.

[Snowy]

Guess that means

No Gardeners World Mars Edition then...

[Rich 11]

Re: Guess that means

Gardeners' World hasn't been the same since Percy Thrower went to the Great Compost Heap in the Sky.

[AndrueC]

The problem was that, while Mars One had plenty of flashy demo videos and public soundbites, it was worryingly vague on the specifics of, you know, getting people to Mars safely and keeping them alive.

Sounds a bit like the Brexit campaign.

[Steve Foster]

"Sounds a bit like the Brexit campaign"

I didn't realise that the Brexit campaign had promised to get people to Mars at all, let alone safely.

Hell, it's become very apparent that they[1] had no actual plan for exiting the EU either (mind you, Remainer May is doing her best to sabotage the whole thing too!).

[1] I meant the Brexit campaign here, but Mars One works too!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "Sounds a bit like the Brexit campaign"

> "Hell, it's become very apparent that they[1] had no actual plan for exiting the EU either..."

Wasn't the plan simply to struggle free of the EU's smothering embrace once and for all? Seems like any small details ought to wait on that big one.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "Sounds a bit like the Brexit campaign"

I believe the Americans have much more in the way of bureaucracy and laws. The difference being they just ignore all the rules if it suits the corporates. On March 30th they will be the only ones we can turn to, they've already started a campaign to introduce their hormone laden meat to the UK, hell I may even become vegetarian.

[M.V. Lipvig]

Re: "Sounds a bit like the Brexit campaign"

You'd be surprised then. Americans aren't buying it either, which is why they've started selling hormone and antibiotic-free meat. Unfortunately we've still got GMO plants but we're making headway against it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "Sounds a bit like the Brexit campaign"

Mays plan is to produce a horrible, unworkable plan, get it rejected, produce an even more unworkable plan, get THAT rejected; all while ramping up BREXIT horror stories, so come the last hour she can decided to stay in a bit long, then a bit longer after that until people get sick and tired of it and demand to stay in.

THAT way, she and all the other politicos can keep on getting cushy, well paid jobs in the EU bureaucracy after we boot them out of office.

Obviously this is all a secret and if she finds out I've posted it, my days will be num.........

[fajensen]

Re: "Sounds a bit like the Brexit campaign"

Maybe. That is probably why, being a couple of steps ahead of the May-bot, "They" hard-coded the leave date at 2019-03-29 so there is a defined end to all the faffing around?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "Sounds a bit like the Brexit campaign"

Actually the EU specified the 2 year process.

[Ken 16]

Re: "Sounds a bit like the Brexit campaign"

from the time the UK pressed the big red button marked "Danger - Do Not Press"

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "Sounds a bit like the Brexit campaign"

That brexit date is not really a hard rule. It's more of a.. a guideline...

[Jason Bloomberg]

Re: "Sounds a bit like the Brexit campaign"

so come the last hour she can decided to stay in a bit long

May has always wanted to remain in the EU; so her rich buddies can reap the benefits of that. All she desires is to release them from the shackles the EU imposes preventing them exploiting everyone else.

The 52% really are turkeys voting for Christmas.

[Ken 16]

47 is the number of your days

No more. No less. 47 shalt be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be 47.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: 47 is the number of your days

Robin: "Holy hand grenade, Batman! This guy's been blown up! The "May Queen" must have been here!"

Batman: "Quick Robin, to the Brexitmobile!"

[The Original Steve]

Re: "Sounds a bit like the Brexit campaign"

As a campaign, rather than being the executive or running to be the executive, I didn't think they were responsible for having a plan?

<Takes cover>

[Richard 12]

Re: "Sounds a bit like the Brexit campaign"

So a campaign can simply promise absolutely anything and everything, regardless of whether it's possible, true or even remotely plausible?

Billions for the NHS! Free cookies for everyone! Flying cars! Unicorns! Dragons! Deportations for anyone who looks at you a bit funny! Eviction for that family down the road with darker skin than you! Free beer! Free cheese wotsits! Instant awesome trade deals with every country in the world! An open but totally closed border with Ireland! Free parking!

Oh yeah, they actually did promise most of that.

[fajensen]

Re: "Sounds a bit like the Brexit campaign"

Remainer May is doing her best to sabotage the whole thing too!).

"Remainer"?

Her leave agreement is a "hard" Brexit, a total separation from the EU on all fronts, so to speak. Only, nobody read the thing before voting on it (and nobody boned up on the WTO either)!

Is it beyond the impossible to embrace the fact that Theresa May is simply incompetent, on an hitherto unseen level even for "government"? The evidence would be the serial failure at pretty everything she was ever put in charge of, except the very personal goal of clinging onto the PM-position (where either she is very good or everyone else are even worse clowns)?

We are talking of someone deciding to keep Chris Grayling around (with no handlers, obviously) not because of some devious scheme to have an idiot even worse than oneself in order to look better in comparison, but rather because one is so out-of-the-box of any normality and reasoning that one cannot see that Chris Grayling is incompetent.

"You" taks someone with a proven track record of failure to determine the next 20 years of "your" country's future and then it should not exactly be a surprise when that job also turn out to be shit?

https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/02/06/theresa-may-is-negotiating-like-yasser-arafat-brexit-plo-britain/

[zuckzuckgo]

Sounds a bit like the Brexit campaign.

As far as reality TV goes, Brexit is a much better show than Mars One. I'm just waiting for the dramatic season ender. Maybe it will even be renewed for a second season.

[Nick]

...or something that Billy McFarland cooked up?

[N2]

Let me guess

A few ex directors gone AWOL shortly after claiming their 'expenses' ?

[Captain Scarlet]

Re: Let me guess

The Mysterons got annoyed at their "invasion" plans and replaced them.

[Steve Foster]

The concept is good (of colonizing Mars - we do need to get a foothold somewhere beyond earth if we wish to ensure the long-term survival of our species), but the Mars One proposed implementation always sounded likely to crash and burn (and that's not a la "oops, we hit Mars too fast/hard").

[Doctor Syntax]

Could we keep them going by public subscription? A change of name to B Ark maybe? There's a lot of good they could do.

[VikiAi]

But then we'll have to clean our own telephones!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's amazing how many people make jokes about launching a B Ark without remembering what happened to the people on their home planet...

[DCFusor]

It's amazing how many don't get how purely ridiculous the idea of a population dying off from a disease contracted from a dirty telephone is. When, you know, there haven't been public phones for quite awhile, there have been doctors and medical research, and despite some setbacks, most pandemic or deadly diseases have been either eliminated (smallpox) or contained (ebola).

Yet the kind of people who went on the B ark are still almost the biggest problem on this planet, with no solution in sight. You think Adams was making a slightly different point than the one you got, perhaps?

[VikiAi]

No, Adams was definitely setting up a really really great-on-the-surface-sounding idea for the explicit purpose of shooting it strait down in one sentence at the end. It is understandable the meta-humor there passes a lot by though!

[Muscleguy]

Also the possibility of phones we carry around in our dirty pockets, maybe with our used hankies etc. etc. But fortunately evolution equipped us with a layered immune system isn't it?

Advances in hygiene and sanitation have lengthened human life considerably from what pertained previously. But how a virulent disease can spread from telephone use is beyond me. I have a modicum of understanding of disease spread and I know the infecton for norovirus is as low as 7 virions but unless I share my phone with lots of people it is unlikely to spread.

If it spreads on human hands the telephones are an extremely minor part of the infection spread and it assumes nobody will retain immunity once exposed and will keep being reinfected by the phones. Note there is very little food on a phone so evolution to evade our immune systems is very unlikely.

Just practice safe phone use and wash AND dry our hands periodically and we'll be fine.

However dirty keyboards/mice/trackpads should keep you awake at nights.

[M.V. Lipvig]

"But how a virulent disease can spread from telephone use is beyond me."

Easy. Hacker dials your number.

You - Hello?

Hacker - cough cough

Now you're sick.

[Mike Moyle]

Maybe the funding problems could have been solved by charging a small fee for recommending/voting for "Celebrity Conscripts"™ to make up the first shipload of colonists. The pool of has-been/wanna-be/never-were celebs, politicians, "lawyers to the stars", and people famous just for being famous ought to nourish the soil... er... that is... should begin the colonization process heroically, and the "poll tax" for voting ought to cover the costs of the cardboard and old string for the rocket quite well, eh, Moriarty...?

[PerlyKing]

Re: cardboard and old string for the rocket

+1 For the Goon Show reference :-)

Have one of these ---->

You do realise that this means the end of the horse-drawn Zeppelin?!

[Anonymous Coward]

"lawyers to the stars"

Add "personal trainers for the stars" and "chef for the stars" and you'll get my vote.

[Cincinnataroo]

With planning like this no need to deliberately muck up another planet and the whole cosmos. It will just happen. (Hang on, it's already in progress on planet Terror.)

[VikiAi]

Ah, you humans and your obsession with squatting at the bottom of gravity wells!

[Anonymous Coward]

It keeps us fit (well, some of us).

[89724102172714182892114I7551670349743096734346773478647892349863592355648544996312855148587659264921]

Their next mission is to the Sun. No heat shielding required... they're going at night

[Steve K]

Just a flesh wound!

If you look at their website today they are shrugging this of as the equivalent of “just a flesh wound” and will be seeking funding elsewhere...

[GruntyMcPugh]

Re: Just a flesh wound!

Yeah, looks like they are trying to get some 'investor' (The Mars One Foundation' perhaps, which is separate, apparently) to buy up 'Mars One Ventures AG' , placate the people who are owed money (some million € ) I presume by giving them some small fraction of what they are owed, and then they plan to spin up the hoopla machine again.

I really hope this fails utterly, they've had a good run spending other peoples' money. Time for them to get jobs.

[Anonymous Coward]

Pity. Would've loved to nominate Malema, Zuma, the Guptas et al for a Martian colony...

On Mars they would get the perfect chance to prove that they can do well without WMC... but now we can't send them off to Mars anymore.

Sad Panda.

[Rich 11]

I have no idea what any of that means. Am I officially old?

[MJB7]

The references are to:

Julius Sello Malema: a South African politician

Jacob Zuma: Former South African president

The Gupta family: "A wealthy Indian-born South African family"

I think Sad Panda may be based in South Africa. (I had to google Malema, and I wasn't sure where the Gupta's were based, though I had heard of them.)

[fpx]

Wish I'd Thought Of That

Seven years of publicity, speaking engagements, media coverage, minor celebrity status, all while living off donations. Just by producing slideware, photoshop and hot air that's plausible enough for the gullible. The world just wasn't ready for his vision.

So much better than slaving away in an office all day.

This guy is a genius!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Wish I'd Thought Of That

"plausible enough for the gullible"

I was expecting "Mars One" to be a sequel to "Space Cadets". Looks like they couldn't figure out how to make an old RAF airfield look even vaguely like a Mars base....

[GruntyMcPugh]

Re: Wish I'd Thought Of That

Have an upvote for remembering 'Space Cadets',...

I think I used that show as a reference when I debunked Mars one on some forum many years ago.

[Anonymous IV]

Re: Wish I'd Thought Of That

"plausible enough for the gullible"

Gullible's Travels, perhaps?

[RyokuMas]

Not surprised about this, but...

... having looked at the other options, why the hell have we not at least had a shot at Mars Direct?

[Steve K]

Re: Not surprised about this, but...

Mars Direct

Mike Ashley might buy that...

[ratfox]

So how much money did they get?

Whatever it was, I'd guess it was quite a lot, compared to the nothing that they delivered. Sounds like the venture was a great success...

[Anonymous Coward]

the idea was weapons-grade stupidity

unless the idea was to sell them shovels to fly to Mars, in which case - great plan, tidy profits (for those who knew how to profit), etc. Mars' gold awaits YOU! :/

[Anonymous Coward]

Were they planning to bring back spiders?

[Steve K]

Spiders

..maybe for their website?

[Drat]

I was wrong

I always thought that as it was such a stupid idea, that they had a real and different plan: Get 20+ gullable people to sign up, build a fake rocket, put them to sleep for a few hours and then wake them up in a "Mars" habitat that is out in a desert somewhere, or in a studio (the story being they had been in months of suspended animation). Then you have a reality TV show of people who really think they are on mars and on their own for every, could have made interesting TV. Could have really messed with their minds (people dressed as martians in the distance, fake an airleak, pretend earth has been demolished) in case you needed to spice it up. Oh well, I was wrong then, but would have been a more sensible idea...

[Brangdon]

Re: I was wrong

Something similar has been done, by C4's Space Cadets, albeit to Low Earth Orbit rather than Mars. Since they were only going to near space (as opposed to outer space), they weren't weightless; the gravity loss was only 30% which was easily compensated by gravity generators built into the ship. Cadets were carefully chosen to maximise the chances of them believing that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Cadets_(TV_series)

[Baldrickk]

Re: I was wrong

That's the one reality tv show I stuck with. It was surprisingly good, probably because they were not trying to make it out that the participants were just average Joe's, but instead picked for their um... gullibility. We got to watch the deception, not have them trying to involve us in it.

It made for a good drinking game too - drink every time one of them missed an obvious clue.

If I recall, two figured it out and were removed from the crew for "health reasons"?

[Roj Blake]

Re: I was wrong

At the risk of spoilers, that's a bit like the miniseries Ascension.

[Robert 22]

Re: I was wrong

Reminds me of the Twilight Zone Episode "I shot an Arrow into the Air".

[John F***ing Stepp]

Hell, I would have gone.

(but being as I am 71 I seem to be "over qualified" for most everything now)

[89724102172714182892114I7551670349743096734346773478647892349863592355648544996312855148587659264921]

You're underqualified for death

[MudFever]

Mar One

Having had a look at the Mars One website:

- Estimate to get 4 corpses to Mars ... $6 billion.

- Next coffin run ... $4 billion

Funding so far:

- Total raised since the asylum doors opened in 2011 ... $1 million.

- Floated on Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 2016 and raised ... $87 million

Which leaves a meagre $5.12 billion to find for the first shipment in 2023! Time to call Elon.

[GruntyMcPugh]

Re: Mar One

I hadn't realised they'd floated,.... and wow, what the data over at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange tells us,....

http://en.boerse-frankfurt.de/stock/Mars_One_Ventures-share

Hit the '10 years' tab, and see for a brief period, some twenty days, the stock soared majestically off the launch pad,.... then had a heart attack and died, recently trading at €0.05 a share, from their apogee of €9.6.

I guess at day 19 into the mission, the bold investors jettisoned their investment, leaving those holding the shares to crash into the ocean.

[M.V. Lipvig]

Re: Mar One

Better to not bother. Shot to the back of the head, pocket the cash, show them "leaving for Mars" using stock launch footage, then report a crash landing killed everyone. If called on it, tell the accuser that until they've been to examine the crash scene to STFU. Pocket 10+ billion dollars.

[David Hall 1]

They were right about the value of the TV rights

Who wouldn't pay good money to witness ." Even if it had, it would most likely lead to the reality TV "stars" dying from crash landing, habitat failure, or slow suffocation. ®"

[Anonymous Coward]

Worrying that this is where we have to look in order to find official sanity in the world.

the Chinese government officially warned its citizens that it was a scam, and the General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowment issued a fatwa banning Muslims from taking part.

[GruntyMcPugh]

According to Wikipedia,....

... Mars One netted some $928,888 in donations since it's announcement in 2012, leaving Bas Lansdorp a measly $130k a year to live on.

[Robert D Bank]

Where is our friend 'A Man from Mars' when we need him?

maybe they remembered to lock the door at the 'home' this time

[Stevie]

Bah!

So it's Bognor Regis again next year, I s'poze.

[x 7]

Was there an official diarist who was supposed to chronicle the project?

And does anyone have a recipe for martian rock cakes?

[spold]

It's bin deep fried

[JDX]

An update from an Actual Mars One candidate...

A friend of mine (in the 100 people selected for future phases if and when anything happens) posted this:

http://hannahgoestomars.tumblr.com/post/182761467414/mission-update-dont-panic

I'm pretty cynical about the project's chance of success but the ridicule from El Reg is little better than tabloid nonsense, I'd have expected better but they're as keen to jump on a bandwagon as anyone else, it seems. The plan has always been to hire people who do know how to build and deliver safely, not have some guy in a shed do it. The initial plan of 2023 is ludicrous but probably no more so than most of Elon's projected dates.

More likely is that Elon just gets there first IMO, or buys out/takes over projects like M1.

[GruntyMcPugh]

Re: An update from an Actual Mars One candidate...

@JDX: "it seems. The plan has always been to hire people who do know how to build and deliver safely, not have some guy in a shed do it."

Riiiight,.... but not use qualified astronauts?

So mars One spend billions on the Infrastructure, made by qualified engineers, then put people inside the spacecraft that have no idea how to repair them?

I'm sorry your friend was scammed.

[Howard Hanek]

Pity

I was looking forward to a huge crop of mutants to liven up the gene pool.

[Tim99]

Nah, they didn't think on a large enough scale.

Golgafrincham B-Ark?

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it wrong to be thinking Will Smith

"Boom, shake the room." ?