An Irish finalist for the audacious Mars One project to start a human colony on the red planet on Tuesday predicted the plan would fall “on its face.”
Joseph Roche, an astrophysicist at Trinity College Dublin, said the selection process for the one-way trip was deeply inadequate and that finalists were encouraged to give money to the project.
“My nightmare about it is that people continue to support it, and give it money and attention, and it then gets to the point where it inevitably falls on its face,” Roche told Medium magazine. “If I was somehow linked to something that could do damage to the public perception of science, that is my nightmare scenario.”
Mars One, a Dutch-based non-profit organization, has been repeatedly criticized over its plan to colonize Mars from 2024.
Dutch Nobel Prize in Physics winner Gerard ‘t Hooft, an early backer of the project, has said that it will far cost more and take longer than planned.
A study by Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers found that humans would start dying within 68 days on the colony and a TV deal intended to help fund the project reportedly fell through.
Roche, an assistant professor, said that candidates for the trip were awarded “points” in return for buying Mars One merchandise or donating to the project.
Initial plans for an interview process lasting several days never materialized after candidates signed a non-disclosure agreement, he said.
“I have not met anyone from Mars One in person,” Roche said. “All the info they have collected on me is a crap video I made, an application form that I filled out with mostly one-word answers ... and then a 10-minute Skype interview.”
“That is just not enough info to make a judgement on someone about anything,” he said.
The group did not respond a request for comment on Roche’s claims, but told New Scientist magazine that donations from candidates did not influence the selection process and that a new TV deal was in place.
Roche did not indicate whether or not he planned to drop out of the project.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not