Is it just me or is NASA seemingly completely unaware of Mars One who plan to have the first human settlers on Mars in 2024 a mere 4 years after this planned Mars mission? Isn't a bit pointless given that Mars One will, by 2020, have started installing the habitation modules and ancillary life support systems for their human settlement by 2020?
Or does Nasa just think Mars One is a big marketing scam? Or what? It's beginning to seem a bit bizarre. MW

It is always valuable to have contingency plans and backups. Mars One *plans* to have the first human settlers on Mars in 2024. It might happen or it might not.

In short, yes, Mars One is an intersection of a scam & naive idealists. Although NASA might indulge fantastic possibilities like the artist concept for an Alcubierre warp drive starship, the real money goes towards practical considerations for things that might actually happen within the foreseeable future.

Personally, I want to know what the heck they intend to do with all the Carbon Monoxide generated as the secondary product of the Oxygen separation. Making the atmosphere even more toxic doesn't seem like a great idea.

1. I find the idea of a Mars colonization in 2024 extremely optimistic.
2. The author suggests to fly to Mars would require a space ship about the size of a small aircraft carrier to just carry the supplies (food, water, oxygen, fuel, etcetera). I am not sure of the size of such a ship but it is extremely big. I question those requirements save for fuel. As the Russian cosmonauts proved you can reuse virtually everything except fuel. Grow food on the ship, use urine and feces for fertilizer and replacement nutrients, filter urine for water, etcetera. What I do see needing to be carried is a supplies for when Mars is reached and major construction materials and equipment. So yes, a dreadnaught sized space ship might still be needed. This dreadnaught will have to be constructed in space as there are no known form of boosters possible to perform a launch of a 27000 ton (very small carrier Juan Carlos I (L61)) payload.
3. Before any hope of long term human habitation on Mars can exist, there must be permanent structures including a structure to provide more air. While the structure might be sealed and resources reusable, I would hope if we are to spend expand the facility, mine resources, develop some form of agriculture, ... Every time the inhabitants leave the structure, they would release some of their internal air, and that must be replaced. Unless the "settlers" can form perfect seals with the ground and expansion is strictly underground, this will remain a critical danger.
4. I would therefore expect at extreme minimum 20-30 year construction project for the dreadnaught based on how fast the international space station is being built. Further allowing regular shuttles to and from Mars with landing craft capable of delivering sealed buildings, construction and mining equipment, soil, water, oxygen collection and storage devices, smelting, mold making and machining equipment, a small mountain of metals including copper, gold, silver, aluminum, ... ... iron, and several grades of steel to build the anything discovered needed not transported. True, the ship could be a source of many of these but then do we want to have to keep building new ships.
5. Before any form of permanent settlement can be established a space port of size sufficient for landing, refueling, and launching must be built. I am assuming that the settlers will not be sent their with no hope of producing output that is usable here on earth. The only reason to send only one way is to establish a permanent extra location for man in the event of a extinction event on earth. If that is the hope, a lot more will need to be sent to Mars in support of the colony. Further the colony size must be much larger, preferably at least 100 fertile mated pairs.

Is it just me and Martin Winlow ? NASA seems to be mounting a PR campaign to short-circuit the work that is being done by Mars One. NASA should get out of the Mars exploration business and leave it up to Mars One. Hey, are there any whistleblowers at NASA who can attest to an effort by NASA to defeat the efforts of private organizations to get to Mars ?

If this doesn't work, they could just use electrolysis to crack the water ice below the ground and end up with oxygen and hydrogen.
You can use the water as is (well, filtered) for drinking, and when split into oxygen/hydrogen can be used for breathing and combined with the hydrogen to power rockets. The hydrogen could also be used in fuel cells for powering various equipment and vehicles.
Also, another group has already tested a device (here on earth in a simulated Martian atmosphere) that could convert the atmosphere into a fuel. I believe it was methane.

If all you need is oxidizer for the return trip by using magnesium or aluminum as the fuel you could then use unmodified C02 as the oxidizer.

As we explore further into space we will find it impossible to keep refueling space ships with oxygen from out home planet; be it Earth or Mars. What will happen when we start to voyage out to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Pluto? We will have to develop the technologies that would make planetary cities, settlements, Orbital stations, research centers, extra-planetary observatories, and space docks self reliant on the basic necessities of life; water, air and gravity. So what technologies are need in order to provide the basics for homo sapiens survival in the harsh environment of space. As our ancestors fought for land, fraternity and equality; we fight for air, water and gravity.

@Kristianna Thomas: There are moons of Jupiter and Saturn that have oxygen we can use.