How to contact someone from Mars One without sounding like a spammer

October 29, 2014 6:27 PM

I am a researcher at a university and I have an exciting idea for a research project that the Mars One project offers a unique opportunity to carry out, without requiring the mission to carry any extra equipment and that could run during the training stage, on earth, so it isn't a good fit for their "university challenge" competition. Rather I would like to contact someone from the team to discuss it. They say on the website they welcome contact from universities and scientists, but there is no information about how to contact them.

Their webform doesn't seem to work (I got an error message when I clicked "submit", and I don't know if it would go to the right person anyway.) I would be happy to donate in order to be able to join the forum, if that will provide an opportunity to contact them that way, but it's not clear to me whether it would, or if it only provides access to an unmonitored community discussion board. Does anyone have any other ideas for how to get in touch?

posted by lollusc to Grab Bag (9 answers total)

This is a longshot, but you could consider mefi-mailing Metafilter's own resident astronaut, RMALCOLM, and see if he has any ideas or run your idea past him. He's not on the site much but his account is still activated.
posted by Rumple at 7:36 PM on October 29, 2014 [1 favorite]

If you know the general area find the zipcode for the closest post office and send a letter.
posted by sammyo at 7:40 PM on October 29, 2014

Best answer: Or a letter to one of the professors on the advisory board at their university address.
posted by sammyo at 7:41 PM on October 29, 2014

Best answer: The one email I see on the site is in the "Partners" section - it says to email [e-mail]. Although that's not the right email for you, you could try emailing them & see if they can direct you to the appropriate person.
posted by insectosaurus at 7:45 PM on October 29, 2014

Best answer: Their news page includes links to their various social media pages - maybe send someone a tweet, etc.? Might not be the right person, but maybe they could redirect you or give you an email address.
posted by jessicapierce at 7:45 PM on October 29, 2014 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Tweet at them that their contact form is playing up.
posted by kinddieserzeit at 8:14 PM on October 29, 2014

Can you talk more about what you're looking for from them?

Mars One is kind of....not awesome, in terms of legitimacy. There may be other programs better suited to your needs that are more likely to pay off.
posted by Narrative Priorities at 8:16 PM on October 29, 2014

LinkedIn -- a search through LinkedIn finds several current Mars One employees, and you could email them through the site.

Many technology experts see Mars One as unlikely to succeed because they have raised less than 1/1000th of the required billions and are focused on marketing instead of technology.
posted by sninctown at 8:19 PM on October 29, 2014

Response by poster: Yeah I know they aren't awesome in terms of legitimate chance of getting to Mars. But my research project would be a social sciences thing relating to the stuff they will be doing over the next few years, so they are actually a really good option.

Thanks for all the ideas above. I will try a combination of them.
posted by lollusc at 8:21 PM on October 29, 2014