Mars One
Mission Objective of Mars One to establish a human settlement on the planet Mars in 2023 funded by a reality TV show.
As of 7th Dec 2016 being that Mars One is under new onwership has come out with a new timeline that now sets the first manned flight to arrive in 2032
Response to Mars One
“Mars mission opens its doors to scientific community for 2018 lander.”
This is the headline of the latest Mars One press release. Mars One is soliciting bids for creating four “demonstration” payloads for this mission, the 2018 Mars One Lander. To generate maximal publicity, they are creating a competition for a university-created payload of up to 2 kg in mass.
To make some money, they are auctioning off two more payloads to the highest bidder. They are also announcing an “educational” payload, making a total of eight payloads planned for this mission.
These payloads are:
1. Water extraction (10 kg)
2. Soil acquisition (15 kg)
3. Thin film solar power demonstration (6 kg)
4. Camera system (5 kg)
5 & 6. Open for random proposals (2 kg each) for highest bidder
7. Educational payload (2 kg)
8. Winning university experiment (2 kg)
These add up to 44 kg of mass in payloads to which you must add various support systems. Proposals for the first four (the demonstration payloads) will be chosen based on a number of criteria, and those that are self-funding will have priority consideration. Smaller masses and power requirements also will receive greater consideration.
Payload 3 will provide power for all of the other payloads.
Payload 2 will provide soil for payload 1.
Payload 4 may be the proof of payload 1 by showing actual liquid water along with at least one additional test.
The university winner will be determined, after initial screening by Mars One, by a vote of the Mars One community.
You can see how cleverly this all is being put together to generate maximum publicity and revenue.