Mars Society & 1000planets Team Up

Anonymous Coward writes "According to 1000planets, they are teaming up with the MarsSociety to offer a lottery of sorts for rides into space and ultimately to the Red Planet. Money problems are over. (fyi: the Mars Direct plan which the MarsSociety aims for costs $10 billion spread out across several years for a sustained exploration/developement mission on Mars--a tiny fraction of the current NASA budget) I'm sure many of you have heard of the X-Prize. This is just another great way for human exploration of space to commence."

Great...

[quinto2000]

Who want's to be that Ted Turner takes the first ride...and claims a red giant for AOL?

Seriously though, the idea is great, but I'm interested in a timeline. All that I can guess right now is "not in our lifetime." Despite the benefits of privatization in some cases, the public sector really seems much better suited to future-oriented programmes like the space programme. How can they guarantee funding?

"Gurantee funding"?

[Bob_Robertson]

Quinto,

Consider how quickly the funding for Mir, the Apollo program, the "fleet" of space shuttles, dried up after initial investments.

The "public sector" has no gurantee of funding what so ever. Programs are picked up or dropped on the whim of a single election cycle.

Worse yet, that funding depends on coersion in the form of taxes. There is also the opportunity for vast quantities of corruption, the American space shuttle program is a perfect example of that in action.

If you want "guranteed funding", put the contract in writing. No government will give you such a contract.

Bob-

WTF?

[Perdo]

Neither linked site has any news about this. If there is a lottery held by these guys, they don't know about it. makes me think "e-mail scam!!"

Just send your credit card number to XXX-XXXX to enter yourself in the mars lottery!

This sounds fishy to me

[redcliffe]

No details for a start, on either web site. Any such initative would normally be announced at a press conference.

I doubt it

[codexus]

The Mars Society is a serious organization promoting the exploration of Mars by humans. Although a lot of its members would love to go on Mars, they also know that only people with the right qualifications can do it. It's possible to go on orbit just for fun but that's not possible on Mars and won't be for decades at least.

The Mars Society might be interested in volunteers for its experiences on Earth like the Arctic base or desert station. You would still need the right qualifications though.

I'm afraid this article won't do any good for the credibility of the Mars Society. Too bad cause they do some real useful scientific work.

Better Idea

[Bossofall]

I would pay for a ticket to send someone to mars. We could have a world wide lottery and the poor sap... oops I mean lucky winner could go to mars. Hey it might end the need for war trials.