Girlfriend or Mars? RT interviews Mars One hopefuls
As the ambitious crowd-funded project Mars One narrowed down the candidates for the first Mars colonization to just 705, RT asked two possible trailblazers, one from Quebec and one from Moscow, why they are so determined to take a one-way space ticket.
This week, the international “not-for-profit foundation”
seeking to establish a permanent human settlement on the Red
Planet – Mars One – announced that only 705 of more than 200,000
applicants for the one-way flight to Mars have been left after
medical and other tests.
“We’re incredibly excited to start the next phase of Round 2,
where we begin to better understand our candidates who aspire to
take such a daring trip. They will have to show their knowledge,
intelligence, adaptability and personality,” Mars One chief
medical officer, Norbert Kraft, said in a statement on the
project’s website.
Of the shortlisted 418 men and 287 women from all over the world,
only six teams of four will be eventually selected, according to
the project’s plan.
RT’s Matt Trezza asked two of the remaining Mars One candidates,
Canada’s Norman Green and Russia’s Anna Popenko, how they have
come to terms with that there is no coming back from the mission.
“The thought has been there since the very, very beginning
that this is a one-way trip. If it became possible to come home
after several years, I’m not even a 100 percent sure that I would
jump on that ship, simply because it’s not part of the mission,
it’s not in the plans of the mission,” Green, a father of
two, told RT.
Popenko too never had a shadow of doubt that the dream mission to
Mars is the thing she needs, despite outside attempts to
discourage her enthusiasm. She said she was even told by a
Russian cosmonaut Maksim Surayev, “You’d be better finding a
husband, having children and being happy. Why do you need this
Mars?”
However, Popenko and several dozen other Russian candidates have
already decided their priorities in life, she said.
“Our Russian guys, when asked about finding a girlfriend
instead of going to Mars, they say: “Can you ever pretend there
are girlfriends that can be better than Mars?”
Both interviewees say they realize that they will not escape
missing their family and will have to make do without many other
habits, too, while living in extreme Martian conditions in a
fragile settlement.
“I would miss surely my friends and my family, but, apart
from this, I think eating meat. We will all have to become
vegetarians,” Popenko said, smiling.
Green’s children may also have to bid him farewell at the age of
16 and 20, if he blasts off to Mars in 2024. But for the
Quebecois, humankind’s future in space is at stake.
Asked if he sees Mars One mission as trailblazers, Green said:
“Absolutely! Every science fiction movie that we have seen,
that takes place in space or on the other planet, had to start
somewhere. And it looks like it’s going to be us.”
Despite massive enthusiasm surrounding the project, many are
still skeptical it will be able to raise even the very modest set
sum of $6 billion to cover the flights, the equipment and the
preparations for establishing a human settlement on Mars. So far,
a total of $544,000 has been raised, as of February 28.
However, the project’s team hopes to turn the first Martian
settlers’ work into a reality show to help raise the money. It
also has a detailed roadmap of the project, involving the use of
commercial SpaceX Falcon Heavy spacecraft for the launches.
The project’s website also warns candidates that the training
work will become their “full time job” even before their
final approval for the mission.
“Teams of prospective Mars settlers will be prepared for the
mission by participating full-time in an extensive training
program… Whole teams and individuals might be selected out during
training when they prove not to be suitable for the
mission,” a Mars One statement says.