In 1969, the Apollo 11 landed on the moon and Neil Armstrong became the first human to step on it. After that, the moon was no longer a target for mankind turned to Mars, the red planet. According to space.com , the NASA is trying to launch a human mission to Mars but due to an insufficient budget, they will not be able to send anyone there at least until 2030.
However, Mars One is leading the mission even though they have nothing to do with the NASA, the ESA or any space agency. They are just a not-for-profit foundation created in 2011. Their main objective, establish the first human colony on mars by 2025. The most surprising feature of this experiment is that it is practically open to everyone older than 18 years old. More than 78,000 people have already sent their application and what is more, around 500,000 people are expected at the end of the recruitment period according to newsfeed.time.com . Did I mention that it is a one-way trip? After all the recruitment 6 groups of 4 people, 24 people in total, will be leaving the Earth forever! No way back for them, their home from then on, Mars.
Maybe you are wondering who pays this mission if the governmental institutions like the NASA or the ESA are not involved. Well, the sponsors are private companies such as: Sonic Voyage, Disc Corporation, Australian Science,… and space technology suppliers like: Thales Alenia Space, Astrorobotic Technology Inc., Space Exploration technologies, …
Travelling across the space is not a child’s play, a minimum error may signify the death of everyone. In addition, Temperature on mars is about -50 Celsius degrees, -59 Fahrenheit. Thus, although everyone can participate in the trip, a very hard casting and a special personality must be demonstrated. Mars One will also provide 8 years of special training to the selected crew. The standard profile for candidates is focus on 5 key characteristics: resiliency, adaptability, curiosity, ability to trust and creativity. This means, they are looking for extremely strong people who do not surrender even in adverse circumstances, people who are flexible intelligent, confident, trustworthy and creative. Also emotional and psychological stability are essential to the success of the mission. Lastly, medical exigencies are also required, only people free of diseases, free of dependency on drugs and with a height between 157 and 190 cm can be elected.
According to the official webpage of Mars One, 4 selection phases will take place, some of them will be broadcast on local TV and the final phase worldwide. They also specify on their webpage that the audience will be able to select some members which may cast doubt about this mission being developed to make “another giant leap to humankind” or only with the objective to make the most costly and impressive reality show ever.
If this mission is going to be more like a social experiment in Mars than a real science and engineering research for humans will be seen along these next years but what is unquestionable is that if this mission is finally carried out, it will mark the future of the humankind.
Ramón,
Founder of Tech For Space
More information in the official webpage of Mars One: http://www.mars-one.com/