They’re probably best described as being from another planet but these Aussies can’t wait to get away from Earth.
From a pool of tens of thousands of volunteers, a shortlist of 100 people have been selected as possible candidates to travel to Mars. And seven of them are Aussies.
The process of appointing travellers for the Mars One mission began back in 2013, with the group recently being narrowed down to just 50 men and 50 women. The mission, which is due to commence in 2018 with a robotic rover trip, will comprise a series of human launches from as soon as 2024. The plan is to have staggered groups of four people sent to Mars to establish an ongoing colony.
To give you an idea, that colony would look something like this:
“The large cut in candidates is an important step towards finding out who has the right stuff to go to Mars,” said Bas Lansdorp, Co-founder & CEO of Mars One. “These aspiring Martians provide the world with a glimpse into who the modern day explorers will be.”
And indeed they would have to be up for some exploring, with chances being that these 24 men and women will never touch down on Earth again.
Read more about it here: We are actually sending people to Mars. And they don’t ever get to come back.
But that doesn’t seem to bother 19-year-old Teah, who says she’s been dreaming about going to Mars for her entire life.
“I really want to be involved. Humans on another planet… biggest thing in history!” she said.
“I will do anything to get this.”
Among the other daring Aussies are 45-year-old PhD candidate Dianne McGrath, 41-year-old German migrant Gunnar and 36-year-old Natalie Lawler.
Flick through to see who else made the cut… (Post continues after gallery).
Aussie Mars One candidates.
The top 100 candidates will now undergo a gruelling training program to determine whether they’re fit to live in the small pod-like capsules for the rest of their lives. This lifestyle, according to Mars One organisers, is all about teamwork.
And given that the pods look like this, we’re thinking you’d want to get to know your roomies pretty well…
The price tag for the mission is set at a minimum of $8 billion, so it’s likely we’ll be seeing a lot of sponsorship and television deals aimed at raising funds. There are already talks in the works of reality series broadcasting the training process and the mission itself.
But with the amount of time, money and complex science needed to ensure this mission is actually viable, we may have to wait another decade to find out if the dreams of these crazy, albeit passionate, Aussies will ever come true.
Watch this for a taste of the application process has been like….
Top Comments
Not surprising such a large proportion of Aussies are included in the list of possible suitable candidates; much like other colonial types, they are generally fearless, happy to blaze trails and push frontiers, not needing to be nannied and coddled overly much. Very exciting.
It's such a huge mission. Here's hoping we can actually, as a species pull this off.