Aussie astronaut hopeful plans to be prove that humans will be living on Mars in 10 years’ time

MEET the Australian ready to give up love in the quest to be the first human to live on Mars.

Wannabe ‘Martian’: Josh Richards has entered his Mars-inspired HAB for the rest of the week

AUSTRALIAN ‘Mars One’ candidate Josh Richards has entered a solitary, purpose-built ‘HAB’ at Sydney’s Circular Quay.

He has been selected as one of only 100 astronaut candidates who will potentially leave earth forever and travel to Mars in 2025 to colonise the planet.

A physicist, explosives engineer and a soldier, when a major film distributor in Australia went looking for someone to be part of a marketing initiative, they could not have found a better and more legitimate participant than Mr Richards.

Josh before entering his Martian-inspired-HAB on Monday in Sydney’s Circular Quay

Mr Richards isn’t just some actor who has been dumped into a Mars-like HAB (habitat) for five days in the hope of flogging DVDs of the Matt Damon starring movie, The Martian.

Quite possibly, he will also be Australia’s first legitimate ‘Martian’ as he is already on the short list of names that is being put through paces. Soon enough he may be part of the very serious and ambitious $6 billion Mars One mission.

The mission hopes to send a group of men and women to Mars by 2025.

While some people still think it is pie-in-the-sky stuff, Mr Richards is absolutely confident human life will eventually exist on Mars.

“I wouldn’t have put my hand up if I didn’t think it wasn’t going to work,” a confident Mr Richards told news.com.au

“I have learnt, among many things, that we can GET people to Mars but we just can’t get them back at this stage.”

Mr Richards says there are many challenges to make the Mars One project work, from political and technological but the biggest one is physiology.

“The biggest issue is about coming back,’’ he says.

“Bones break down due to the reduced gravity environment, as you have zero ‘g’s’ when travelling through space so your body is adapting to reduced gravity. Once it is coming back it is going through upwards of 9gs of gravity, so you just wouldn’t survive it.

“With going one way, you have the chance to land and stay on land on the planet and research and discover new things and you never have to worry about experiencing the risk of what could be coming back.”

Minutes after Josh Richards entered his ‘HAB’ in Sydney’s Circular Quay on Monday morning

Hence, any of the team eventually chosen in the next 12 months and who commit to going to Mars have to reconcile the fact that Mars, potentially in 10 years’ time, will be their home. Forever.

“It’s really been an extension of where I was already going,’’ says the Perth-born former military man.

“I know what it is like to live with a backpack and rather than focusing on owning a home and having that kind of very traditional 1950s image of what success in life is, I have become a nomad and just keep moving and go where I need to be.

“My hope is you’ll be able to go outside in 10 years’ time and point out to kids outside that ‘look up there, there are people now living there, on Mars’.”

The public ‘HAB’ he has entered is very similar to what Matt Damon’s character ‘lived’ in, in the movie, The Martian.

“It is very clean and quite similar to what is in the film and what is going on inside will be very similar,’’ he says.

Mr Reynolds is taking part in a five-day public challenge that will require him to use his ingenuity, tenacity and skill to survive in a simulated Martian base.

He will be required to undertake up to three survival challenges a day, set by a team of experts and scientists.

The challenges have been designed to emulate those faced by Mark Watney (Matt Damon) in the Oscar-nominated movie, The Martian.

Before getting into his week-long HAB: Josh Richards unmasked ...

“I’m not fussed about people watching into the HAB over the next few days as you basically have to forget that the cameras are on and that people are staring,’’ he laughs.

But hang on, if he was to suddenly meet someone who he fell madly in love with, how would the 10-years-on-earth timeline go.

“I have faced those challenges already,” says Josh.

“I was with someone when I found out about all of this and I sat down with my partner and had an in-depth discussion. I realised that I want to eventually change the way all humans live and if this happens, this will definitely be part of that.”

“It’s difficult and very challenging and it means I don’t have those kind of relationships that most people do as I am committed to going to Mars.”

At this point, there are 100 candidates worldwide for the Mars One mission and there are seven Aussies in the mix.

Our favourite Martian?

“The next phase is September when they get us all together somewhere in the world and will put us through more testing and we would eventually become full time employees hoping on a launch date of 2026 with a landing date of March 2027.

“The cost of all of this is the cost of a major stadium or it is three times of what Australian would spend on beer in a year.”

* The public can observe Josh 24-hrs a day, directly through the glass exterior or via a live camera feed at www.bringhimhome.com.au

The Martian is out on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD on February 10

Josh’s ‘bed’ for the next few nights in his The Martian-inspired HAB