Fatwa forbids Muslims from traveling to Mars

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Really? Can you please elaborate? On this forum I do my best to stand up against Islamophobia, but statements like this make it harder.

I've spent time among muslims though and realise the greater proportion of them don't harbour delusions of some sort of a global caliphate.

This is about as crazy as the rule about breastfeeding adult men to turn them into blood relatives.

This is about as crazy as the rule about breastfeeding adult men to turn them into blood relatives.

This is about as crazy as the rule about breastfeeding adult men to turn them into blood relatives.

I've spent time among muslims though and realise the greater proportion of them don't harbour delusions of some sort of a global caliphate.

And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His [t]elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

They dont want to have to deal with Marvin the Martian.

Pus, *Jesus* even implies that people off-world will get raptured...



I want to hear about this book, now. End times prophecies and space colonisation are a minor interest of mine, especially as they relate to a world I'm building.

There is a joke that goes like this:
- Did you know that arabs are going to take over the globe?
- Really? Why?
- Because the westerners will have settled in mars and the moon and the rest of space.

And I as muslim, I plan on staying here and contributing the the unity of human family before I "move out" to other places. Then earth will be Islams territory.

How can a territory have an religion? Until now, I only met religious people, never religious trees, mountains, stones, grass or rivers.

Then you haven't talked to enough trees and rivers.

What worries me the most, is twofold. One - they've not been forthcoming with how they intend to get people there. This is far from a routine spaceflight. You can't just go there in a conventional spacecraft as we understand them. The longest anyone has been in space is 6 months, a one way trip to Mars, with our current technology, even without the weight luggage of a manned trip is 8 months. Thats before you consider the hazard of solar radiation in deep space.

Two- My understanding is that as a private rather than state sponsored project, its going to have a 'reality TV' emphasis rather than a scientific one. They plan to send average members of the general public, people who simply don't have the physical endurance of traditional astronauts or have been through the rigorous screening of conventional space programs. Consider that they will be enduring the most dangerous flight ever.

Findings by an instrument aboard the Mars transit vehicle that carried the Curiosity rover show that radiation exposure for a mission of permanent settlement will be well within space agencies' astronaut career limits.

Radiation on the way to Mars
A study published in the journal Science in May 2013 calculates 662 +/ 108 millisieverts (mSv) of radiation exposure for a 360 day return trip, as measured by the Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD). The study shows that ninety five percent of the radiation received by the RAD instrument came from Galactic Cosmic Rays or GCRs, which are hard to shield against without use of prohibitive shielding mass (1).
The 210-day journey Mars One settlers will take, amounts to radiation exposure of 386 +/- 63 mSv, considering these recent measurements as standard. This exposure is below the upper limits of accepted standards for an astronaut career: European Space Agency, Russian Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency limit is 1000 mSv; NASA limits are between 600-1200mSv, depending on sex and age (1)

Mars transit habitat radiation shelter
On the way to Mars, the crew will be protected from solar particles by the structure of the spacecraft. The crew will receive general protection of 10-15 gr/cm2 shielding from the structure of the Mars transit vehicle. In case of a solar flare or Solar Particle Event (SPE), this shielding will not suffice and the crew will retreat to a dedicated radiation shelter in Mars Transit habitat, taking their cue from the onboard radiation monitoring and alert system. The dedicated radiation shelter located in the hollow water tank, will provide additional shielding to the level of 40 gr/cm2. The astronauts should expect one SPE every two months on average and a total of three or four during their entire trip, with each one usually lasting not more than a couple of days.

Radiation on Mars
Mars's surface receives more radiation than the Earth's but still blocks a considerable amount. Radiation exposure on the surface is 30 µSv per hour during solar minimum; during solar maximum, dosage equivalent of this exposure is reduced by the factor two (2).
If the settlers spend on average three hours every three days outside the habitat, their individual exposure adds up to 11 mSv per year.
The Mars One habitat will be covered by several meters of soil, which provides reliable shielding even against galactic cosmic rays. Five meters of soil provides the same protection as the Earth's atmosphere-- equivalent to 1,000 g/cm2 of shielding.
With the help of a forecasting system taking shelter in the habitat can prevent radiation exposure from SPEs.

Total radiation exposure
The 210-day trip results in radiation exposure of the crew of 386 +/- 61 mSv. On the surface, they will be exposed to about 11 mSv per year during their excursions on the surface of Mars. This means that the settlers will be able to spend about sixty years on Mars before reaching their career limit, with respect to ESA standards.

1. Measurements of Energetic Particle Radiation in Transit to Mars on the Mars Science Laboratory C. Zeitlin, D. M. Hassler, F. A. Cucinotta, B. Ehresmann, R. F. Wimmer-Schweingruber, D. E. Brinza, S. Kang, G. Weigle, S. Böttcher, E. Böhm, S. Burmeister, J. Guo, J. Köhler, C. Martin, A. Posner, S. Rafkin, and G. Reitz Science 31 May 2013: 340 (6136), 1080-1084.

2. F. A. Cucinotta, L. Chappell, M. Y. Kim, Space Radiation Cancer Risk Projections and Uncertainties–2012 (NASA Technical Paper 2013-217375, NASA STI Program, Hampton, VA, 2013)

The application process consists of four rounds.

Round 1: All candidates must submit an online application. The online application consists of general information about the applicant, a motivational letter, a resume and a one minute video in which the applicant answers some given questions and explains why he or she should be among the first humans who set foot on Mars. At this stage the potential candidates can submit their application in one of the 11 most used languages on Internet: English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Russian, Arabic, Indonesian, Chinese Mandarin, Japanese, Korean. Approved application videos are available to be watched by everyone on applicants.mars-one.com, if an applicant decides to make his or her application video public. At the end of round one, a team of Mars One experts will decide which applicants will pass to round two.

Round 2: Candidates for round 2 will need to get a medical statement of good health from their physician. The applicant will be invited to meet with a Mars One selection committee. After conducting an interview with the candidates, the selection committees determines who will pass to round three.

Round 3: This round is the regional selection round, which could be broadcasted on TV and internet in countries around the world. In each region, 20-40 applicants will participate in challenges that demonstrate their suitability to become one of the first humans on Mars. The audience will select one winner per region and Mars One experts will select additional participants to continue to round four.

Round 4: Those who pass to round four will be expected to be able to communicate in English. The applicants will be responsible to reach this level of English. Round 4 will be an international event that will be broadcasted throughout the world. The Mars One selection committee will create international groups from the individual candidates. The groups will be expected to demonstrate their ability to live in harsh living conditions, and work together under difficult circumstances. The groups will receive their first short term training in a copy of the Mars outpost. From the first selection series, of which Round 1 starts in 2013, six groups of four will become full time employees of the Mars One astronaut corps, after which they will train for their mission. Whole teams and individuals might be selected out during training when they prove not to be suitable for the mission.