Will It Succeed?
If the mission all sounds a little far-fetched to you, rest assured, you stand in good company. A number of concerns have been raised about how viable the project really is. In 2012, Chris Welch, from the International Space University declared: "The Mars One proposal does not demonstrate a sufficiently deep understanding of the problems to give real confidence that the project would be able to meet its very ambitious schedule." Several others have raised questions over the project's plans to raise the money required for such an ambitious mission. Mars One estimates that the mission will cost around $6 billion. However, the estimated cost of a 2009 NASA proposal for a round trip to Mars was closer to $100 billion. In addition. space tourist Richard Garriott expressed his belief that "Many have interesting viable starting plans. Few raise the money to pull it off." Other experts have concerns over the amount of radiation that the astronauts will be exposed to over the course of the mission. Exposure to radiation can increase the risk of cancer and, as a result, NASA do not subject their astronauts to levels of radiation that increase this risk by any more than 3%. Yet, the Mars One proposal will subject its crew to almost a full NASA career worth of radiation in one trip, before taking into account radiation exposure on the planet itself. Despite these fears, however, Bas Lansdorp remains confident that the Mars One mission will be a success and will land the first four human beings on Mars in 2023. Certainly, in spite of the risks, it seems there are no shortage of volunteers.