Paul_Bakken
Obsidian
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2012
Both very fair questions! Here is a redacted image of the email that I received:
Best I could do at this point. I have also been in direct contact with one of the Mars-One Project team members, Dr. Norbert Kraft.
In regards to your second question -- like I said, I am honored and humbled to even have the chance to participate in this program. There are any number of reasons why I might not make it through the final rounds, and there are any number of reasons why the Project itself might fail. But even in failure, there is the prospect to yield important "lessons learned" that will benefit the ultimate long-term goal of establishing a permanent human presence off of Earth.
For example, even if Mars-One never results in people leaving Earth, there will be extensive training and mission simulations here on Earth, either at the Devon Island simulation site or another similar location. These exercises will produce valuable data regarding everything from practical construction methods to food production, and from resource management to small team psychology in an ICE environment (Isolated, Confined, and Extreme.)
I am mindful of the Biosphere II experiment. Although many critics panned Biosphere II as a failure, it failed in a very useful and informative way. For example, one of the things that we found out from Biosphere II is that concrete soaks up a LOT of oxygen, and continues to do so for a long time after construction. This is a useful thing to know when choosing materials for a prospective extra-terrestrial habitat!
Finally, I have a favorite quote from Teddy Roosevelt that does a good job of articulating my feelings about the program:
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
If T.R. were alive today, you can be assured that he would somehow find his way onto that first transport to Mars!
