By Brittany Lauro | Editor in Chief –
Boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider. Girls go to Mars to get more candy bars. We all remember the childhood taunting but, never once did we think anyone would ever truly travel to Mars. Today, this jungle gym jeer, discounting the candy bars of course, becomes reality.
Mars One, the foundation planning to put a human settlement on Mars in 2023, launched its plan in April 2013 after securing investments and commissioning a conceptual design. Today, there are over 200,000 applicants from 140 countries eager for the opportunity to step foot on the Red Planet.
The mission will be stylized like a reality TV-show. Much like MTV’s The Real World, this is the story of twenty-four strangers, picked to travel on a spaceship, live together and have their lives taped, to find out what happens when people leave earth and never return. That’s right, these 200,000 applicants have a one-way ticket.
According to the foundation, human settlement on Mars is the next major advancement for humankind. “As with the Apollo Moon landings, a human mission to Mars will inspire generations to believe that all things are possible, anything can be achieved.”
And so, with the goal of uniting mankind, the foundation has ultimately begun to pool applicants for lifelong isolation on Mars. According to the Mar’s One website, six teams of four applicants will be selected during 2015. To start, these applicants must meet certain physical requirements, including perfect vision and a height ranging between 5’2” and 6’3”. Chosen teams meeting the physical requirements will then go through eight years of required, intensive training. Primarily, they must establish new and imperative skills, including but not limited to cultivating crops in confined spaces and tending to routine and serious medical issues. They will also be isolated from the world for several months every two years in groups of four while housed in simulation facilities. In this way, both participants and foundation members will be able to study how participants respond to living in close quarters while isolated from humanity.
Once sufficiently prepped, the teams will depart in 2022 on a seven to eight month journey completely devoid of all earthly luxuries. Showering will not be an option, personal space will be limited, and food will be freeze dried or canned.
“The journey will be arduous, pressing each of them to the very limits of their training and personal capacity. But the astronauts will endure because this will be the flight carrying them to their dream,” the foundation explains.
While the challenges and risks factors may seem incomprehensible to most, according to applicants, the rewards of the journey far outweigh the threats. “Space inspires me to dream,” explains 26-year-old applicant Rodrigo Cespedes Daza. “I dream of the cosmos and dream of being part of this new world; I am akin to a traveler who seeks to find and create something new.”
