Prospective Martians apply for one-way trip to red planet
Author: By Jennifer Juarez CNNMexico.com [photo. Ali Jarekji / Reuters]
(CNN) - More
than 100,000 people are eager to make themselves at home on another
planet. They've applied for a one-way trip to Mars, hoping to be chosen
to spend the rest of their lives on uncharted territory, according to an
organization planning the manned missions.
The
Mars One project wants to colonize the red planet, beginning in 2022.
There are financial and practical questions about this venture that
haven't been clarified. Will there be enough money? Will people really
be able to survive on Mars? But these haven't stopped some 30,000
Americans from signing up.
You
can see some of the candidates on the project's website, but they're
not the only ones who have applied, said Bas Lansdorp, Mars One CEO and
co-founder...
...The application process
Anyone 18 or older may apply, but the fee depends on a user's nationality. For Americans, it's $38.
The
company said it sets the price based on the gross domestic product per
capita of each nation. "We wanted it to be high enough for people to
have to really think about it and low enough for anyone to be able to
afford it," Lansdorp said.
For
the first crew, the Mars One mission will cost $6 billion, Lansdorp
said. The idea is for it to be funded by sponsors and media that will
pay for broadcasting rights of shows and movies documenting everything
from the astronauts' training on Earth to their deployment and
colonization of Mars.
Out
of the applicants, Mars One said it will select a multicontinental
group of 40 astronauts this year. Four of them -- two men and two women
-- are set to leave for Mars in September 2022, landing in April 2023.
Another
multicontinental group of four will be deployed two years later,
according to the Mars One plan. None of them will return to Earth.
The
astronauts will undergo a required eight-year training in a secluded
location. According to the project site, they will learn how to repair
habitat structures, grow vegetables in confined spaces and address "both
routine and serious medical issues such as dental upkeep, muscle tears
and bone fractures."
"What
we want to do is tell the story to the world," Lansdorp said, "when
humans go to Mars, when they settle on Mars and build a new Earth, a new
planet. This is one of the most exciting things that ever happened, and
we want to share the story with the entire world."...
Continue reading...
What are the qualifications to apply?
Qualifications
In 2013 Mars One will conduct a global search to find the best
candidates for the first human mission to Mars in 2023. On Mars, the
primary responsibility for the astronauts is to keep everything, and
everyone, up and running. This will be a particular challenge for the
first teams. They will need the skills to solve any potential problem -
some of which will be completely unforeseeable. Their combined skill
sets of each team member must cover a very wide range of disciplines.
The astronauts must be intelligent, creative, psychologically stable and
physically healthy. On this page, we offer a brief introduction to the
basics of our astronaut selection process...
The Mars One Project
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