Mars One was publicly announced in May, 2012. Bas Lansdorp, as co-founder and CEO of Mars One, was the individual responsible for the project’s schedule, technical feasibilities and financial aspects. Lansdorp received his Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering in 2003, from the University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands. He then worked for five years at the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Delft, Netherlands.
TU Delft was established on January 8, 1842, by King William II of the Netherlands as a Royal Academy for the education of civilian engineers, for serving both nation and industry, and of apprentices for trade. It is host to over 19,000 students, more than 3,300 scientists and more than 2,200 people in the support and management staff.
According to Wikipedia,
Dutch Nobel laureates Jacobus Henricus van ‘t Hoff, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, and Simon van der Meer have been associated with TU Delft. TU Delft is a member of several university federations including the IDEA League, CESAER, UNITECH, and 3TU.
As a Dutch inventor and entrepreneur, in 2008 Lansdorp founded Ampyx Power to develop a new, viable method of generating wind energy. In order to launch Mars One, he sold part of his Ampyx shares in 2011 and financed the entire Mars One project until 2013.
Major risk categories of Mars One
At the very beginning, Mars One identified two major risk categories they could be dealing with — loss of human life and cost overruns. Anyone who studies Mars to any extent realizes that this is a planet with an unforgiving environment. The tiniest of mistakes or accidents could easily result in a huge disaster, injury or death. But the real problem to critics is money; everything else is an add-on to the problem.
Cost overruns should not be a problem to the critics as it was stated in the very beginning it would be a risk category that could happen, and those who were involved were aware of it. But unfortunately, it has been. For example, here are titles of articles from the mission’s top critics, many addressed in the corresponding video:
MARS ONE Finalist Explains Exactly How It’s Ripping Off Supporters (Medium)
All Dressed Up For Mars and Nowhere to Go (Medium)
Mars One Finalist Reveals Problems in Application Process (HNGN)
Is Mars One a Scam? Video from The Medium through The Know
The majority of everyday readers do not look at where an article comes from or whether it has been sourced accurately. The title is their truth. As far as authors, anybody can find an article to agree with what they think, good or bad; whether it is true or not depends on the source of the information. If the title is critical in a vicious sense, so will the article.
But remember this, the Massachusetts Bay Colonists were probably not on the popular list with their plans to come to America ….the same people now who are criticizing a company with odd plans to go to Mars!
