Ever since the Mars One project was announced in 2010, people have been tuning in to find out more about the team that plans to head out to Mars in 2027. But could the Mars One project become a reality, or was it doomed from the beginning? New information released by one of the Mars One finalists is pointing to the latter.

The Mars One project is a bold and one-of-a-kind project that promises to put humans of the Red Planet. The one-way trip is supposed to take place in the year 2027 and its purpose is to colonize the planet. The people heading out to Mars, are not supposed to come back, as it would more than double the price for the mission and defeat the purpose of the mission, which is to colonize and make a habitable spot on the Red Planet.

The Mars One project is the brain child of Dutch man Bas Lansdorp, the CEO of the company behind Mars One. He says the whole mission can happen using the technology that is available to people today.

Needless to say, such a complex and almost unfathomable mission is bound to be plagued by controversy. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has done some research and in 2014 it concluded that the program is not realistic. Other articles that have popped up all over the online media have called into question the ethical, financial and scientific feasibility of the project. With all that around the Mars One, Lansdorp still says that the project is not only feasible, but that it is going to happen at the time when it is supposed to happen.

Mars One and the Science Behind It

In 12 years, Mars One intends to send four people to the Red Planet with the purpose to launch more manned missions and ultimately colonize Mars. This is supposed to be done with the technology that is available to people at the moment. Also, Mars One is not going to design nor manufacture any hardware itself and it is completely dependent on the companies that build systems needed to get and stay on Mars.

What strikes as odd is that, while Lansdorp is a mechanical engineer, he has admitted that he does not understand the scientific details behind the Mars One mission. Mars One plans to outsource every single piece of tech work to various other companies, including Paragon Space Development Corporation that is working on the life-support systems for Mars One. Paragon’s report on the work and science behind Mars One is supposed to come out this April and it is going to be the first attempt at explaining the science behind Mars One.

Andrew Owens and Sydney Do, two of the MIT researchers who performed the study that revealed Mars One’s many flaws, said that the Mars One mission plan is simply not feasible. They concluded that significant technological development is needed before people can walk on Mars, much less support a growing colony of humans.

Dr. Norbert Kraft Says it Isn’t So

Doctor Norbert Kraft conducted research for the Russian Space Agency, NASA and JAXA (the Japanese space agency). He holds an M.D. from the University of Vienna, Austria and he is a fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association. He is the chief medical officer for Mars One and he doesn’t agree with the MIT study that says the mission is not feasible.

Kraft says that the research done by MIT is actually not a research at all. He undermines the scientists’ work and importance by calling them a student and an undergraduate student who just wanted to make a presentation at a conference.

Owens and Do are not undergrads, they are PhD candidates in astronautics and aeronautics at MIT and each of them has a Master of Science in the same fields at MIT. How could Kraft say that the two scientists have not done enough research on the Mars One mission, when he himself has not done enough research on them?

Lansdorp also agrees with Kraft and calls Owens and Do students, but the MIT research didn’t leave Lansdorp all that cold. The MIT research results did change two sections (the goals and the expected amount of plants needed on Mars) on the Mars One website, so Lansdorp and Kraft do believe some of the research results after all, even though they do not want to admit.

Another critic of Mars One is Nobel-prize theoretical physicist, Gerard ‘t Hooft, who says that it would take people 100 years to settle on Mars and at least 10 times the amount of money Mars One is currently listing.

Chris Hadfield, the first Canadian astronaut to walk in space, says the Mars One project is disillusioning people and that it doesn’t address even the most basic ideas about space travel.

NASA did not chime in on the subject of Mars and it is not expected to do so in the near future.

Mars One Finalist Reveals a Plethora of Inconsistencies

Doctor Joseph Roche is a professor at Dublin’s Trinity School of Education and has a PhD in astrophysics and physics. He is also one of the 100 finalists for the Mars One Mission.

Last week Elmo Keep from Medium published an extensive interview with Roche that made took the Internet by storm. The reason behind that is the fact that Roche doesn’t believe Mars One is going to happen and he’s been giving plenty of reasons to support his claim.

The budget for the Mars One mission is very low, at $6 billion and Roche suspected from the beginning that there had to be something suspect about the entire mission. In the interview he revealed that he did not meet a single person from the Mars One project in person. Remember, he was chosen out of, Mars One claimed, 200,000 applicants. Yet, Roche said nobody ever wanted to talk to him in person.

Roche said that the entire ranking within the project is entirely points-based. Once you apply and join the Mars One Community you are given points as you move on to the next level. You get more points if you buy merchandise from Mars One or if you donate money to the project, which means that you’re basically buying your spot on the team.

So how did Mars One intend to get the $6 billion needed to fund the trip to Mars? With a series of reality shows that presented the entire selection process. Endemol, a TV production company, has announced that it has pulled out of the contract, which leaves Mars One scrambling to gather the money.

Roche stated that he has decided to speak out and let the whole world know that the Mars One selection process was a complete farce. Joseph Roche said that he not only did not meet with anyone from Mars One in person, but that all the interviews were done through Skype. He continued to say that the initial plan was for the contenders to travel to Mars One headquarters and take all the tests and interviews there, but that never materialized.

Roche went on to reveal that:

They made us sign a non-disclosure agreement if we wanted to be interviewed, and then all of a sudden it changed from being a proper regional interview over several days to being a 10-minute Skype call.

Roche’s main worry is that the obvious failure of the Mars One project, as he sees it, is only going to lead people to lose faith in NASA and even scientists. He fears that Mars One could potentially damage the people’s perception of science.

What Now?

Roche’s statements chip away at the whole Mars One mission wall, but they are not enough to tear it down. Naturally, only time will tell if people get to Mars through the Mars One project, but the way the whole mission is shaping up, most likely Mars One will not put men and women on Mars in 2027.

Right now, there are too many unknown factors, too much uncertainty and not enough money for anyone to give a final verdict on Mars One.

At the moment, Mars One has narrowed down its candidates to 100 and it’s planning to get down to 24 of them. They will be offered a job by Mars One, they will be trained and out of the bunch, four finalists will be selected. They will leave Earth and head for Mars in 2027.

Lansdorp knows there are many holes in Mars One’s plans and he says that there are solutions for every problem.