The Red Planet has been the focus of discussions these days due to an initiative of one-way trip to the planet by an organisation, Mars One. Their mission is to establish a human settlement on mars within a decade. Between 24 and 40 candidates will be selected to participate in a seven-year training program that would start in 2015. The Martian prospectors would then be sent to the red planet in groups of four. The settlers, equipped with life support systems and Martian humvees, would construct lab facilities for conducting research and living quarters with food gardens.
So who is game for the trip? It’s a question that the Mars One project poses on its website:
You could say that most people would rather lose a leg than live the rest of their life on a cold, hostile planet, having said goodbye to friends and family forever, the best possible video call suffering from a seven minute delay—one way. However, there are individuals for whom traveling to Mars has been a dream for their entire life. They relish the challenge. Not unlike the ancient Chinese, Micronesians, and untold Africans, the Vikings and famed explorers of Old World Europe, who left everything behind to spend the majority of their lives at sea, a one-way mission to Mars is about exploring a new world and the opportunity to conduct the most revolutionary research ever conceived, to build a new home for humans on another planet.
Who all applied?
At the conclusion of a five-month-long first round of Mars One Astronaut Selection Programme, 2,02,586 people from around the world have applied out of which 20,747 are Indians! The United States tops the list with 47,654 applications, followed by India (20,747), China (13,176), Brazil (10,289), Britain (8,497), Canada (8,241), Russia (8,197), Mexico (7,464), Philippines (4,365) and Spain (3,722) on the top 10 list.
The Next Step:
Out of these 2 lakh participants, the Mars One selection committee will select prospective Martian settlers in three additional rounds spread across two years. By 2015, six-ten teams of four individuals will be selected for seven years of full-time training. In 2023, one of these teams will become the first humans ever to land on Mars and live there for the rest of their lives, the statement said.
Mars One said each Round 1 applicant is now being screened by the selection committee, which is expected to take several months. Candidates selected to pass to the next round will be notified by the end of 2013.
The second round of selection will start in early 2014, where the candidates will be interviewed in person by the selection committee.
Who knows, by 2050, we might actually have established human settlements on Mars - Replica Earth maybe!
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