Mars One: Property Management in Space

Life on Mars.  And no, this is not just another movie about space travel laced with subpar alien scenes. Believe it or not, a mission dubbed Mars One is in effect with the goal to establish 4 humans onto the planet by 2023. This may seem like a long way away but the trip absolutely calls for a decade’s worth of planning. This much time is required because (and here’s the best part) the Mars One team is planning to establish the voyagers on Mars for permanent residence. Talk about moving to a remote area!

The plan was hatched by the Dutch entrepreneur, Bas Lansdorp, who announced the idea in May of 2012. This excursion, which is organized into stages, begins with crew selection, which will be a significant undertaking as anyone can apply for the position. Let me repeat. Anyone can apply to be rocketed to Mars. As we can imagine, the selection process will be painstaking as they will strive to find the perfect candidates for this life-long task, but at the end of the day we will see the best of the best blazing the trail onto new planets (By the way, if you think you have the physical and intellectual capabilities to make it on Mars, you can apply today. Note that it costs $38 just to register to see the application, however).

After the astronauts have been selected, the 4 crewmembers will be launched in 2022 for an arrival in 2023.  Awaiting them on Mars will be six living units that were constructed by rovers in the years before their arrival. The housing will consist of inflatable units which will allow for 50 meters² per voyager, and will have a living room, kitchen, and plant growing room. When they want to go outside, there will naturally be a spacesuit to keep them safe and provide oxygen. Although the group will have a few finishing steps to complete before they can enjoy what the project claims will be pretty normal day-to-day lives, overall it will be an average life of research and experiments for the astronauts.

The problem Bas faces, like many other dream projects, is funding. Mars One is estimated to cost $6 billion USD, and unfortunately, that amount has not been raised yet.  Luckily, the time is early and the funding ideas are vast and lucrative. As it says on the project’s website, from the time the astronauts leave earth, they will have every step of their adventure broadcasted onto TV’s, phones, and computers 24/7/365. The project has the potential to be a media goldmine, with many sponsorship opportunities for Earthbound companies. Putting an exact dollar figure on the value of those broadcast contracts is too early to be meaningful but we can guess that the price will be steep. However, the investment should pay off as the project’s developers believe that Mars One will have more surrounding intrigue than the first moon landing or the Olympics. Along with broadcast money, the project has around 25 corporate investors channeling resources into the effort. Also, anyone who feels strongly enough can donate directly to the project on their website.

And who knows, by 2023 MRI Software may expand its reach out to Mars.  Using Workspeed Property Operations would be useful if one of the voyagers has a service request; a representative could be quickly dispatched from Earth and arrive as soon as 7 months.  The astronauts could also schedule preventive maintenance to make sure their units and tools are in prime condition. To be fair, however, Workspeed is much more suited for our earthly customers. In addition to the functionality already mentioned, this property management solution offers tools such as business analytics, visitor management, and even mobile support. Using these features at their full potential enables property management to be less of a headache and more of the rewarding career that it is.

What do you think of Mars One? Will you be sending in your astronaut application?