spacetoday.net: Study raises doubts about viability of Mars One

Posted: Wed, Oct 15, 2014, 9:29 AM ET (1329 GMT)
Mars One base illustration (Mars One/Bryan Versteeg)

A proposed privately-developed one-way mission to Mars would likely kill its crew within months of arriving on the planet, according to an MIT study. The analysis of Mars One, performed by MIT researchers and presented at the recent International Astronautical Congress, concluded that the crops needed to sustain the Mars settlers would create excess oxygen, which would require additional nitrogen to dilute it to safe levels. That would deplete gas supplies intended to compensate for leaks, causing a drop in overall air pressure in the habitat over time and suffocating settlers as soon as 68 days after arrival. The Mars One plan, the MIT researchers also found, underestimated the amount of spare parts needed to maintain the facility; the additional supplies would require 15 Falcon Heavy launches versus the 6 in the original plan. Mars One, a Dutch organization that proposed sending four people to Mars on a one-way mission in the 2020s at a cost of just $6 billion, has argued that technology exists to remove excess oxygen from the habitat's air, but the MIT study notes none of those systems have been developed for use in space.