[Image Source: Mars One]

In recent years we have seen reality television sink from the lows of Big Brother down through teen pregnancy, to the dregs of Jersey Shore. Earth, it would seem has little left to offer in terms of reality TV. Enter Dutch team, Mars One, who are looking to raise an initial $6 billion to send a team to mars by 2023, and make a reality show out of it.

This sounds crazy, sure, but I would prefer to watch this than white trash Americans shouting inanities at each other, which is all reality TV really is. And, as Mars’ atmosphere is 95% carbon dioxide, receives 43% less sunlight than earth, and has the largest dust storms in our Solar System that can cover the entire planet, it is the perfect place to watch humans lose their shit.

Be not so quick to scoff, friends. The project has, as ambassadors, some serious minded people. Nobel Prize winning scientist in Physics, Prof. dr. Gerard’t Hooft, is onboard saying, “[t]his project seems to me to be the only way to fulfill dreams of mankind’s expansion into space. It sounds like an amazingly fascinating experiment.” Cheque’s in the mail, Prof.

Paul Römer, co-creator of Big Brother, is also behind the project. His take is that:

. . .the concept of a ‘one-way’ mission is both outrageous and exciting. These aspects are what brought me to the idea of making the mission the biggest media event in the world. Reality meets talent show with no ending and the whole world watching.

Once the first team has landed, a new team will join the settlement every two years. So, if all goes according to script, by 2033 there will be over twenty people living on Mars. A big thrust of the argument as to why they can pull this off and NASA cannot, is that Mars One is not planning a return journey. The team will leave earth to finish out their lives on the red planet, and that is what I want to watch.

It seems to me a bat-shit insane idea. But that is why I love it. We will have people on Mars at some point. And when we do, we are all going to watch it. So why not aim for a reality show right from the start. The Truman Show on Mars. Brilliant.

[Source: Huff Post, Mars One]