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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 6109848" data-attributes="member: 177">You realize that sending several payloads to Mars before you put people on board is part of the Mars One plan, right?  And that NASA is planning to use the Falcon Heavy for the same purpose before Mars One intends to launch any people, right?  And that it is still three years before Mars One intends to send any payloads to Mars, right?Is there risk?  Of course!  If this weren't risky, it wouldn't be interesting!  There is no way in heck that the very first manned mission to Mars is going to be anything other than risky.  If you want risk-free, yes, this isn't for you.  You may take your personal efforts and interest into something nice and safe - like bread-baking.  That's nice and safe.  Until you need to get into a car and go out and buy more flour and yeast, 'cause the roads aint' exactly safe, you know...Yes, but then again, it looks like Space X is on track for being able to lift things into orbit about 10% of what it costs NASA to do the same - the Falcon Heavy is expected to bring the cost down to under $1000 per pound, from NASA's $10K per pound.NASA is a great organization, and they have some of the most brilliant minds on the planet.  But they are hampered by governmental bureaucracy, governmental media-paranoia, and governmental risk-aversion, and that drives their costs up a great deal.I find it credible because, as previously noted, this is not 1969, and is not the Apollo mission.  It is a new century, with decades of experience, understanding, and technological development under our belts.  In Apollo's time time, we were just stepping into space.  Now, we've had decades of developing needs to reach near Earth orbit and geostationary orbit that simply didn't exist back then - enough need to drive an industry.  So, basically, Mars One is able to piggyback on that other industry, and take advantage of economies of scale that Apollo did not. And that makes a huge difference in the price tag.</blockquote>

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