http://kozmedia.com/mars-one-to-build-h ... t/2210643/Mars One co-founder Bas Lansdorp has a very modern approach to funding the project: media exposure. “We will finance this mission by creating the biggest media event ever around it.” He said in a company video, adding, “Everybody in the world can see everything that will happen in the preparations and on Mars.”
Think of it as a “Big Brother” for outer space. Lansdorp explained to Yahoo! News, “This would be ‘real’ reality TV — adventure is automatically included, we don’t have to add fake challenges.” He added, “By sending a new crew every two years, Mars will have a real, growing settlement of humans — who would not like to follow that major event in human history?”
Next year, according to its website, the company will begin an astronaut selection process. Those who have the right stuff will then undergo a decade of preparation. And, we assume, the Mars travelers will be ready for their out-of-this-world close-up.
Would you be willing to be relocated to the Red Planet?
I am completely torn on this. Although I've debated in the past on behalf of the ability of free enterprise to outdo government agencies in space travel and discovery, however they seem to have married the greatest step of humanity with what I feel has destroyed television: realityTV.
*galactic facepalm*
Although, given suggestions in sci-fi over the past couple decades, this isn't entirely surprising.