A reality show...on Mars???

So yesterday I stumbled upon THIS article. 


From the article...

A Dutch company aims to land humans on Mars by 2023 as the first step toward establishing a permanent colony on the Red Planet.

The project, called Mars One, plans to drop four astronauts on Mars in April 2023. New members of the nascent colony will arive every two years after that, and none of the Red Planet pioneers will ever return to Earth.

To pay for all of this, Mars One says it will stage a media spectacle the likes of which the world has never seen — a sort of interplanetary reality show a la "Big Brother."

Is anyone thinking what I'm thinking? (besides the fact that whoever wrote the article can't spell 'arrive')

 Total Recall! Exactly! "Get your ass to Mars!"
 

 Or maybe you're thinking of something slightly more obscure...

 Yes! Red Planet with Val Kilmer.  I saw this film but can't remember a damn thing about it, which means it wasn't very good.

 And then there is always Doom -you can go video game or movie (although the movie, from what I hear is a total train wreck) on this one.  The video game, however was a ground-breaker.

And then I wondered, would the whole world really watch a bunch of stuck-up Dutch scientists float around a capsule the size of a port-o-potty a la The Truman Show?


 There is only one answer for a reality TV smitten planet...


-Only if they're hot, extremely obnoxious or in some other way captivating.


Sad, but true. 


So now the question becomes are there scientists that are competent enough to pull off the mission yet hot enough, obnoxious enough or captivating enough to draw the attention of the entire planet?  The odds are very, very, very slim.


In fact, if the Dutch mission command had any sense, they'd start grooming candidates now based on these traits. They've got 11 years!  If need be, they can choose four 'candidates' who have these traits for the public, get the necessary funding all the while training the real crew in secret. Two days before the launch, the candidates all get the Dutch swine flu (nasty thing, that Dutch swine flu) and are scratched from the mission.  In come the 'alternates' and up they go.  Funding is already in place and the public is none the wiser.


So, if you could be a part of this mission, would you volunteer? Who would you like to see up there?


My answer -not a chance and the cast of Jersey Shore (as long as they never returned AND a solar flare disrupted transmissions between Mars and Earth preventing the show from ever being aired)

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