Mars One Project (Photo : Photo: Facebook)
An Irish Mars Trip finalist said that the Mars One project that aims to set up a human colony on the red planet was encouraging donations to the project. The finalist also said that the selection process of candidates was more than just inadequate.
Joseph Roche, an astrophysicist at Trinity College Dublin, said that candidates got "points" for purchasing merchandise or paying money to the project.
According to Phys.org, while talking about the inadequacy of the selection process, Roche said that the project just saw a crap video he made, required a form that was filled up mostly with one-word replies, and a 10-minute non-detailed Skype discussion session.
The Irish finalist also said that the costly project requires huge funding and hence, it is asking the participants to donate money. The Irish finalist said that he came across a "tips for candidates" document that requested the candidates to share a big percentage of the fee for appearing on TV channels or in interviews.
The document requested candidates to donate 75 percent of the fee, according to Roche.
However, Suzanne Flinkenflögel, the director of communications of the parent company, said that the Roche's accusations are false.
Meanwhile, many scientists have opined that the idea of a human colony on Mars from 2024 is audacious but failure-prone. Gerard 't Hooft, the Dutch Physics Nobel Winner, has said that the mission is more costly and will take much longer time than what has been anticipated.
A Massachusetts Institute of Technology study has opredicted that the Mars One members would start to die within 10 weeks of joiniung the Mars colony. Earlier, a TV program meant to help funding the project had failed too.
Bas Lansdorp, the Mars One thinktank, said in February that the project is challenging but would definitely take shape, Independent reported.
"It will be one of the biggest challenges humans have ever experienced," Lansdorp said.
Lansdorp further added that he was convinced that they will be able to accomplish the task, and that experts had no doubt in the feasibility of the mission after he illustrated the objectives and plans to them.
The information whether Roche planned to exit Mars One project was not available.
