In its highly publicized search to find people for a private manned mission to the Red Planet, Mars One has winnowed down its applicant pool of 200,000 to 1,058 candidates — all of whom are serious about living out out the rest of their lives on another planet.
Headed up by Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp, Mars One, which claims to be a non-profit entity, plans to launch a one-way mission to Mars. Lansdorp says he can put a permanent crew of six on our neighboring planet by 2023, and he will continue to shuttle more settlers every few years. The colony would be outfitted with livable habitats, greenhouses, rovers and everything else a human would need to survive on an oxygen-free, resourceless dust bowl. There's only one requirement: You must be at least 18 years old.
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To say something like this would be astronomically expensive is only a small chip of the giant iceberg of issues — technical hurdles, health concerns, legal obstacles — Lansdorp will have to face in order to make a Mars One mission successful. By his calculations, Lansdorp needs $6 billion for the first mission — and he has a business plan to make this happen.
Lansdorp, a businessman who founded a wind energy company, believes Mars One will be the greatest reality television show the world has ever seen. Every second of this venture will be filmed, and Lansdorp is banking on the fact that advertisers with deep pockets won't hesitate to pull out their checkbooks for a piece of history. When I spoke with him at a press conference in New York earlier this year, Lansdorp pointed to the Olympics as an example: "Four billion dollars for four weeks, just because the world is watching," he told me.
The lives of these future astronauts are solely in the hands of advertisers. But what happens when Mars One jumps the shark? What happens when humans on Mars is old news, and no one is watching? Who will pay the billions upon billions needed to sustain these people until they die?
It's all part of the risk. Which brings me to my next point: Who would apply for something like this? More than 200,000 people from all walks of life. However, this second round tells us more about who they really are. Of the 1,058 candidates moving on, 586 are male, and 472 are female. The United States has the most participants, with 297. Canada follows with 75, India with 62 and Russia with 52. The rest are scattered across the globe, from Italy to Singapore.
The majority are educated: 347 hold a Bachelor's degree, 159 have a Master's and 29 even have an M.D. Most (813) are employed, but 164 are still in school. Most of the applicants are under 36.
These people will now undergo medical examination and several selection phases that include "rigorous simulations, many in team settings, with focus on testing the physical and emotional capabilities of our remaining candidates," according to Mars One's chief medical officer, Norbert Kraft.
While there are no real requirements — other than age — for a Mars One astronaut, Kraft told me in January that he will look for people who can work well together. The crew will be mixed gender, and they will all need to speak English. Besides that, they'll learn most of the skills they need to survive in training for the next eight years or so.
But despite the physical and mental tests Mars One applicants will go through off screen, the selection isn't up to the appointed experts — it's up to us.
The public will choose the candidates who make it to the final round after a televised gameshow-like reality competition. Up to 40 applicants per country will participate in challenges "that demonstrate their suitability to become one of the first humans on Mars." The audience will select the one applicant from their respective country that will move forward.
Mars One reserves the right to pick the final crew, but if everything hinges on advertising dollars, you better believe those people will be appealing to audiences. They'll have to be marketable.
If we're getting serious about it, Mars One has a very small chance of sending humans to Mars in 10 years for $6 billion. (For reference, NASA's Curiosity rover cost $2 billion.) Lansdorp has received some funding from Lockheed-Martin, but he has repeatedly said he will not partner with federal space agencies like NASA to make this happen. He also claims he'll use SpaceX technology, but a spokesperson from the company told me nothing is officially on the table.
But for all its flaws, Mars One is doing one thing right: People of all ages from all corners of the world are talking about space exploration again. And, let's face it, that's something we've needed for years.
Image: Bryan Versteeg, Mars One