Why didn't you try a fundraiser here on GOG first? I would've been happy to give you 20 for it.

Space landings happened when countries were competing with each other. Now every country is a special snowflake and allied with someone else. There is no such competition, which is a shame too, since such non-war inter country struggles in the name of science could do much good.

Because it had to be a fraud. Think again about it carefully; some people that you can't even be sure they are from NASA indeed, promise a lifetime of donated goods/expenses/living on Mars planet; then asks you for 10 dollars on an online payment. Had to be a scam. Just like those fake land-deeds for moon space 1 decade ago. Plus, official word is that the team is already assembled and training. Another fishy aspect, was that they said from start that there was no need for candidates to be skilled in basic-need professions, like a doctor, an engineer and stuff like that. Seemed like an ultra fishy, suicide mission to your average, non-braindead person. And old Bradley is no one's guinea pig or test subject. Besides, there are 3 males and one female in the current team. Going there and being single, you kidding me? At least here i have lots of fun, even at the expense of others!!!

Nasa never asked for volunteers for a Mars mission, but one or 2 privat initiative did indeed ask for permanent "settlers" (aka : "we might know how to send you there but not how to bring you back, so you'll die up there. Probably young, too")

No idea if they're still planning to do this (or if they were serious in the first place, and not simply doing a media stunt)


Well, you can say that one stopped hard...


But yeah, getting an orbit (and not a flyby), and then landing on an alien world is hard

I like to think of it as the first of many in a carpet bombing operation. Hey, gotta smoke out those Martian separatists one way or another. How else is Mr. Cohaagen gonna get a monopoly started so he can control all that air?

Mars One has nothing to do with NASA. The idea was to send a group of people on a one-way trip to Mars and then make it a reality show to get the billions needed to cover the expenses. It's an entirely private initiative and a rather... odd one at that, though yeah, they do have the selected finalists in training supposedly.
Current plan is for the first manned launch in 2026.

Oh. Scott Manley had made a little (mostly uplifting) video about the Schiaparelli failure : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya05tVoEk8E

Why don't I check his account more often ?

__________________________________________
Silent update :

High res pictures of crash site.

http://spaceflightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/PIA21131_hires.jpg
from
http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/10/27/new-images-resolve-finer-details-of-mars-landers-crash-site/