Sonia Van Meter is 36 years old, and she already knows exactly how and where she wants to die.
Not on Earth, but millions of miles away on Mars.
“We’re all going to die at some point,” said Van Meter, a political consultant. “What if I could be the first human being to die on Mars?”
Mars One, a Dutch not-for-profit foundation, is committed to a $6 billion endeavor that aims to send four people on a one-way trip to Mars in 2024.
After receiving 202,586 applications from 140 different countries, Mars One finally narrowed its search Feb. 16 to the final 100, with 38 finalists from the U.S. and six from the Washington region, according to The Washington Post.
The six “Mars 100” finalists who live in Washington, Maryland and Virginia are Daniel Carey, 52, from Annandale, Virginia; Oscar Mathews, 32, from Suffolk, Virginia; Michael McDonnell, 50, from Fairfax, Virginia; Laura Smith-Velazquez, 38, from Owings Mills; Leila Zucker, 46, from Washington; and Van Meter, from Alexandria, Virginia.
“There was not much to lose, and everything to gain [in applying],” said Mathews, who works as a nuclear engineer and U.S. Navy flight test engineer. “It’s critical that we present a vision of the future that everyone can participate in, but especially our younger generation.”
Mars One plans to select 24 of the 100 finalists to officially train for the Mars expedition, which would include a seven-month trip to Mars and permanent settlement upon landing.
The goal is to send a team of four people every two years starting in 2024.
For Zucker, an emergency room doctor and a lifelong space fanatic, it’s about time this expedition took place.
“We have to get off the planet at some point if we want to survive,” said Zucker, who praised Mars One for reviving the conversation regarding space exploration. “It’s been 45 years since the Apollo landing. … What the hell have we been doing?”
Nicholas Schmerr, a planetary scientist and geology professor at this university, said a decrease in space exploration, especially to the moon, is partly because of the “been there, done that” mentality.
“Part of the reason we were going for the moon is because it was politically motivated in many ways,” Schmerr said. “Once we had gotten there and beaten [the Soviet Union] to it, I think the public enthusiasm for the project waned quite a bit.”
Although Schmerr is eager to see humans go to Mars during his lifetime, he said he thinks Mars One’s plan is too optimistic, oversimplifying the extent of available resources and funding needed for the expedition’s success.
“The resources, technology and money needed to send people to Mars are pretty darn large.” Schmerr said, adding that NASA studies estimate the cost of a human trip to the planet ranging from tens of billions to hundreds of billions of dollars. “It kind of makes it out that we have these capabilities when we really don’t, and it reflects poorly on the agencies like NASA, who spend a lot of time and money and effort to try to develop these technologies.”
Even with the space community at odds, Mars One is well underway with the process of determining its future astronauts, who will likely be a mix of genders, ages and nationalities.
The final 100 candidates went through three rounds, from online applications to medical clearance forms to personal interviews via Skype, Zucker said. The finalists now have to wait for the final word to move on, while Mars One waits for the broadcast company to provide a contract for the documentary-reality show to help raise money for the expedition, Matthews said.
Even though there are eight unmanned missions to Mars scheduled before the 2024 launch to practice takeoffs and landings, drop off supplies and scout for potential living sites, safety is not a guarantee.
“Mars One told us, ‘This is a one way trip. … Even if you could [return], it’d be a physiological strain on your bodies such that your muscle mass would decrease, you’d have osteoporosis, and you’d be exposed to high-intensity radiation fields,’” Mathews said. “I don’t think they sugarcoated any of that.”
Van Meter added the Mars habitat is notably different and potentially hard to live in, with Mars having about one-third the gravity of Earth, a toxic atmosphere, red dust and rocks as well as significantly lower temperatures and light.
The finalists said they would still have limited access to Internet on the expedition as well as one-way communication such as access to tweeting and email thanks to satellites. This could help the finalists stay in touch with loved ones and supporters while away.
With support of family and friends, as well as the determination to explore the unknown, three finalists said their main fear is the expedition falling through.
“What I’m most afraid of is that they won’t make the funding goals, or some other issue will come up, some major international issue,” Mathews said. “[Something] that detracts attention and steals the passion and steals the energy, the world might have for a chance to come together and do something that doesn’t involve war or politics or anything negative.”
Schmerr, on the other hand, is almost certain the expedition will not reach fruition in 2024.
“Maybe if they said 50 years I’d say, ‘OK, well, you can do anything in 50 years if you put enough money into it,’ but 10 years is just not a realistic number,’” Schmerr said. “I want to see it be done right, where people actually have a real plan that would make it work.”
But for now, the finalists have a positive attitude.
“The time is now,” Zucker said. “Don’t count Mars One out.”
