Ticket to Mars
A new DAO to buy the first commercial ticket to Mars (and accelerate our path to the new world)
I. The Dream
For the past 50 years the dream of going to Mars has usually been met with a few questions.
Why? Why attempt to settle a place that’s so far away and so inhospitable to human life?
Everyone from Carl Sagan to Barack Obama has given their own answers to these questions. When it comes to going to Mars, reasons range from securing a backup planet if there is an apocalypse on Earth, to research that helps us understand how life forms, to doing it because we can.
When pressed further, more questions come.
Even if there is a value to going, why go now? Why focus on Mars when there are so many immediate problems on Earth?
In a recent talk called, “There Could Still be a Movement,” startup/studio founders Reggie James and Eugene Angelo get into the weeds of an answer. If you haven’t seen the talk yet, press play. It takes a dive into what is stifling about the modern internet, what has peaked with globalization, and the value of Mars as an image for what can come next.
Our take builds on all the above.
The reason we’ve gotten this far as a species is because we can't sit still.
Earth might seem so nuts right now because we’re explorers at heart and we are going stir crazy in front of our computers. In the past 50 years, there has been incredible progress in computation, AI and in other kinds of frontier tech, but nothing beats the physical frontier. A small crew putting their bodies into a ship and directing it towards someplace we have never been.
In 2023, we have never had a better shot at directing that ship.
SpaceX did a successful test fire of Starship last month and has an orbital test planned for the coming months. If this next test of Starship is successful, we’ve hit a breakthrough in solar system travel that’s hard to comprehend. Our species will have a fully reusable ship that can travel millions of miles and return home. Starship could become our space Uber.
It’s a beautiful thing to see but even if the tech is near, how do we build the coalition that will unlock the billions of dollars for the mission? Who gets to go? What nations are included? What research is prioritized? If Mars is a symbol for the new world, what dreams do we have for the new world?
II. The DAO
The questions above are what spawned the creation of Ticket2Mars.wtf. We created a DAO to buy the first commercial ticket to Mars.
It's going to take a while to get to the point where we can pay to go to Mars, so the other focus of the DAO is to accelerate that timeline. A portion of the funds raised (through a Nouns style daily auction) are reserved for the ticket to Mars. The other portion is reserved for efforts to lobby governments and pull people into the mission. We have three areas where we’re focused.
Win hearts and minds of a portion of the world to ensure Mars colonization is attempted in the next ten years. (lobbying + activism)
Help bring together talent that’s already sold on getting to Mars so we can better organize and make a positive impact on the conversation/mission that NASA and SpaceX are already having. (online spaces + offline events)
Fund and support projects that drive the conversation about what human expansion in our solar system looks like.
III. First Steps
This is a huge mission on a long timeline.
Before we commit to a formal DAO structure with a token we’re airing out the project to absorb feedback and to find others who would also like to go to Mars.
To kick things off, we’ve formed a labs team (@new_world_labs) and are rolling out some mini releases. We want to give people a taste of what kind of projects/energy we are craving with this before the DAO is live.
We have many in the works. Some are coming later this month. To follow along, follow our twitter and subscribe below:
If you’re animated by this mission, we’d love to hear from you (DMs are open).