In Mars We Trust

[rug]

“Mars One colony as imagined by year 2024. Bryan Versteeg/Mars One.” http://www.mars-one.com/en/roadmap2024

By Thore Bjørnvig | October 3, 2013

As the spaceship slowly approaches Mars its captain is overcome by religious remorse. Though he is the mastermind behind the space station orbiting Earth, and hasn’t had any interest in the Bible before, he is now growing more and more convinced that mankind wasn’t meant to venture forth to other planets. The heavens is God’s abode and it is sacrilege to breach His realm. The captain’s son, also on the ship, thinks otherwise. It cannot be a coincidence that just as Earth’s population is reaching critical mass and resources are becoming scarce, mankind has developed the means to escape the bonds of Earth. Mankind’s thrust into the solar system was meant to be.

Tension builds and as the spaceship enters Mars’ atmosphere and slows down for a landing, the captain suddenly accelerates the ship again, threatening to burn up everyone aboard. His son manages to force him away from the controls and the ship crash lands. On the surface of Mars the captain sabotages the ship’s water tanks and wounds his son, who tries to stop him, with a gunshot. They fight and during the struggle the gun goes off and kills the captain. The crew barely survives a Martian winter and only just make it back to Earth.

This is the storyline of the 1955 movie Conquest of Space. Almost 60 years old, its depiction of faith gone awry in outer space may seem outdated. But the notion that faith in space may pose a danger to mankind’s cosmic ambitions lives on – at least in the minds of some of those who wish for the success of the Mars One project.

Reality trip

Mars One is a Dutch non-for-profit foundation, established in 2011, which promises to send four astronauts to Mars by 2023 in order to set up a colony. It aims at becoming a global media spectacle funded by private donations and the selling of reality tv rights and merchandise. Until recently, anyone could put in an application to become an astronaut and – according to Mars One – some 200.000 people from all over the world have sone so. Despite the fact that the trip to Mars will be a one way trip in order to reduce costs.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2013/10/03/in-mars-we-trust/

[MisterP]

1. we can call it a parafaith, or something

satisfying both the theological and technocratic perspectives

and I swear I saw "Conquest" MST3Ked, but it wasn't