Bas Lansdorp, the founder of Mars One colony project, believes that in about a decade from now a colony of people from the Earth will appear on Mars. Experts confirm that with the current technologies this is quite possible.

Eccentric as Bas Lansdorp's ideas may sound, his speech at a recent International Space Commerce summit gathered a full hall of listeners, mostly entrepreneurs.

Lansdorp is expecting that the first unmanned mission to pave the way to the Red Planet will leave in 2016, followed by a first rover in 2018. The first colonists will come to Mars in 2023, he says.

"There's no good answer to the question why exactly we want to go to Mars. But it will happen because exploration is what we humans do," Lansdorp says, enthusiastic as a child.

The facts that there are no water and no atmosphere breathable for an Earth human on Mars do not seem to embarrass Lansdorp. "The rovers will activate life support systems, they will feed them with Martian soil, which has ice crystals in it. This water will evaporate, and to make oxygen, we'll take nitrogen from the Martian atmosphere. We'll create an atmosphere," he says.

Everything you will eat on Mars will be natural, with no pesticides, Lansdorp assures his followers.

One listener asked Lansdorp whether he has thought about the space radiation on Mars.

Lansdorp, who seems not to be at loss at answering any question, provocative as it may be, replied that he has thought about this problem. He explained that the water that the crews will carry to Mars will serve as shielding against deadly solar particles and cosmic rays. Besides, the roof of the colonists' house on Mars will have some two meters of Martian soil for protection. You'll just have to make sure not to wander outside too much.

Asked whether he will go to Mars himself, Bas Lansdorp answered: "I started Mars One because I wanted to go, and I still want to go to Mars, but I had my first son a few weeks ago. But it's not even the main reason. I am just not that kind of person who can be locked up in a small room for 30 months with other people without hating each other. But I really hope I will be able to take my family to Mars one day."

According to Lansdorp's calculations, it will cost about $6 billion to get the first four people on Mars and $4 billion for every crew that follows. Where to get such money? Lansdorp has an answer to that as well. The flights will be highlighted on TV, he says.

"The Olympic Games in London made about $4 billion in just three weeks of broadcasting, just because the world was watching. But this will be a lot bigger."

Well, one may say, this may work for some time, but sooner or later, flights to Mars will become a routine, and the interest of TV viewers in them will fade.

"There is a small group of people in the world who have a lot of money," Lansdorp says with a smile. "There are 200 billionaires who can finance the trip from their net wealth."

Meanwhile, Lansdorp acknowledges that the colonists would never be able to return to Earth - even if they have or build a rocket that is able to take them back. Life on Mars will provoke irreversible changes in their organisms. They will lose bone mass and muscle mass to such an extent that it will be extremely difficult for them to gain it back to survive a return trip to Earth and then to live in the Earth's atmosphere. They will be doomed to live on Mars till the end of their lives.

One may say that Bas Lansdorp is an odd guy, if not a madman. However, he has a large army of followers - more than 200,000 people have already expressed a wish to go to Mars, even without ever coming back. In about a month from now, Lansdorp is expected to announce who has made it into the second round of selection.

Source: Voice of Russia