Talk of sending humans to Mars in order to establish a place to live seemed like an impossible idea, until now.
A non-profit organization entitled “Mars-One” is accepting applicants to fly and live on Mars in 2023.
More than 200,000 people all over the world have applied, and as long as you are 18 or older, in good shape and have 38 bucks for an application, you can be one of these “lucky” people.
Keep in mind that this is a one-way trip. The people who are selected to go to Mars will never return to earth.
The ship is estimated to leave in September of 2022 and will land seven months later in April of 2023.
Doing something of this grand a scale would no doubt be revolutionary to mankind’s understanding and perception of the universe.
The expedition could give the world a chance to push our technological capabilities and perhaps find new natural resources and even life.
With the way we are rapidly destroying our planet, it may be of a great advantage for future generations were we to ever really run out of resources.
However this an extremely dangerous mission and couldn’t we learn just as much by using robots?
The “Curiosity Rover” is already roaming Mars as we speak, and has been able to find things such as water. One can follow the rover on twitter to see updates on what else it finds.
For the applicants, they are giving up a life on earth. The astronauts will never be able to see their family members and friends again, or even have a family of their own for that matter.
They will have to live on dried and canned food, and sacrifice fresh air and oceans for dust, dirt, and space suits.
And this is all given up to be able to say you are a part of the first civilization on Mars? It’s good bragging rights, but wouldn’t be worth it for me.
By watching some of the videos, people range from completely delusional to motivated and serious about this mission.
This voyage is something some have dreamed about doing for their entire lives.
“Mars-One” will select two men and two women to travel to Mars first. Two years later they will send out a group of 40 astronauts.
All astronauts must go through an eight-year training program and it will be up to us to vote who the second group of astronauts will be.
By picking a group of 40 people from all over the nation, it raises questions such as, how will the government be set up?
It is also will be interesting to see how all these individuals will agree on difficult challenges they will no doubt be having to face as they establish a whole new society.
This is bound to affect us on earth as well, emotionally and financially. After all, this “colony” will require supplies and support from us.
This endeavor just seems like it will bring us more problems than solutions.
The decision-making and the actual trip to Mars will be broadcast for all audiences to watch on earth, almost like a Mars Reality TV Show.
If all goes according to plan, this is expected to be the biggest media event in history, bigger than the Olympics.
With the mission costing around $6 billion to actually take place, it’s easy to be skeptical that this project will actually be able to acquire the money it would need to in the next ten year.
Although it would be one of the most historic moments of our lifetime. This all seems like a death wish to me. But I suppose we will just have to wait another ten years to find out what happens.
The application deadline to be one of these brave souls ended in August, but to watch the videos of possible applicants explaining their reasoning for why they would want to travel to Mars, visit applicants.mars-one.com.
