It has all the key ingredients and fits the "2012" pattern beautifully. But unlike SpaceX which has been rapidly accumulating experience and reputation, Mars One seems a little farfetched and too abrupt to be a realistic project. Or that was probably people's initial reaction in general.

Back in June, Mars One was still "in talks" with various interested private companies, including SpaceX. But things have changed. It is moving forward. Recently Mars One announced receiving enough funding to initiate the next phase of the project, which is the astronaut selection process scheduled for 2013! But what I personally see as a game changer is their decision to partner with SpaceX. Mars One now plans to use SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket and a variant of the Dragon spacecraft (both still in development) to send supplies, rovers and humans to the Red Planet... starting in 2016! Yes, now it actually sounds [more] realistic. And it's ridiculously exciting!

UPDATE: In December 2012, Mars One had a meeting with SpaceX "where they discussed the timeline and financial conditions to purchase a 2016 launch and landing on Mars."

A media event (reality show) of the millennium featuring Mars One and SpaceX... [...] This could be how the world ends and how the new world begins! And it [may be] starting right now. The reality TV show is starting as early as next year, 2013. So this is getting very real very fast. If it manages to keep moving forward... well, mankind will have never seen anything like this.

Here is the Mars One road map:

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The first "moment of truth" will come in 2016 when Mars One/SpaceX launches their first supply (unmanned) mission to Mars. (Notice how this might coincide with Marco Rubio/"Mars Red" becoming president [or vice president] of the United States.) If successful, we are going to see the beginning of a real "Mars fever" on this planet - an excitement that will eventually match and surpass that of the Moon race half a century ago.

Think about it. Going to Mars is exciting enough, streaming it all live is exciting enough, but this will all culminate in a one-way trip to Mars for the "lucky" four astronauts. Can you imagine the the intensity of all the drama that will surely surround the insanely historic launch? It will be surreal. And that's only about a decade away (2023). That's like from 9/11 to now. That's not a very long time to wait. I'm sure some of you have been following my work longer than that!

This is [the stuff that would] change the world. Indeed, what we are seeing right now is the end of the world as we know it. Once we start going off-planet (beyond low-earth orbit), all bets are off, the floodgate is wide open, and everything changes very rapidly. Welcome to the Brave New World.


Given the aforementioned timeline, we can multicontextually infer that the "Martian baby" - via Prince William & Kate - will be born in 2013 as well, coinciding with the first phase of Mars One. [UPDATE: It is now confirmed that Kate's baby will be born in 2013.] This may also potentially produce a severe "Birthquake" such as the "Big One" on the west coast of the United States.

I still can't get over how brilliant this partnership forged between Mars One and SpaceX is. It's perfect. Elon Musk/SpaceX was prepared to go it alone, but their logistics calculation had to take into account a return trip. Escaping a planetary gravity well is no easy task requiring a lot of energy. Cutting that energy (as well as supply) requirement in roughly half would be a game-changer. And that's exactly what Mars One brought to the table with their one-way trip (colony) model. Add to it the exciting use of a reality-TV show for funding purposes, suddenly it seems quite feasible to send humans to Mars in just over a decade! SpaceX wanted to reduce energy/supply requirements and overall cost, Mars One needed technical expertise, experience, cheap rockets and spacecraft to carry their crew. They complemented each other perfectly. While SpaceX could have gone alone (and they still might), it would have taken a few years longer to clear the hurdle made higher by the extra (return trip) stuff. Now, working with Mars One, we are [plausibly] looking at 2023 for the next "giant leap for mankind."

Can you feel the "Destiny" in the air?

If there is still a big missing piece of the puzzle, that might just be... mining. If we discover valuable minerals on Mars, it will give us a solid long-term business rationale for having a continuous human presence on that planet, ensuring that the colonization process will move forward unlike what happened with the Moon. [...]
Last but not least... [...]


But for now, only few are seeing and comprehending what's happening.