The Mars One organization officially ran afoul earlier this week. In a Medium story on the matter, Mars One finalist Dr. Joseph Roche presented multiple reasons as to why he believed the entire operation is a complete scam.
The organization has since published a video interview with CEO Bas Lansdorp in which he refutes much of what was written in the Medium piece. For starters, he says the idea that candidates were selected based on how much money they donated to the organization is simply untrue. The executive added that there are many third round candidates that have not donated any money to the initiative as well as plenty that did donate but didn't make it past the second round.
Lansdorp also addressed the issue of applications. If you recall, Roche claimed there were in fact just 2,761 total applications for the one-way trip - not 200,000 that we were led to believe. Lansdrop said Elmo Keep (the journalist that wrote the Medium story) was the first journalist ever to be offered a list of all of the applications but she wasn't interested in it.
The executive further defended the organization's selection process, candidates' individual activities (including revenue sharing) and the production company that was to create the reality television show to fund much of the mission.
At this point, it seems to be one person's story versus another. The question now looms, who do you believe is telling the truth? Is Mars One legit or a scam?