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Mars One candidates on edge as final ‘colonist’ set to be chosen

MARS ONE: It’s either the greatest adventure in history, or one of its greatest shams. Soon 24 reality TV contestants will be told they have won a one-way ticket to Mars.

Jamie Seidel and Brad Crouch
6 min read
February 15, 2015 - 7:21AM
News Corp Australia Network

MARS ONE: It’s either one of the greatest adventures in history, or one of its greatest shams. But to a group of ‘true believers’, they’re already on their one-way mission to the Red Planet.

If they succeed, they will die on Mars.

If they don’t die on the way.

And if their lives aren’t destroyed by the process here, on Earth.

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Of course, we’ll get to watch every intimate step of their journey.

That’s how the 2025 commercial enterprise is to be funded: Sponsorship of a proposed reality television show.

Regardless, 660 awkward and expectant candidates — including Tristan Perkins, one of some 50 Australians — are sitting on the edge of their seats: All their hopes are pinned on a “stringent astronaut selection process” which is about to unfold.

Out of it, two men and two women will supposedly win seats on the first nine-month manned voyage to Mars. Twenty more will be trained for possible follow-up expeditions.

We’ve just had a taste of the sales pitch which will govern their futures via a new promotional video.

It’s life, but not as we know it.

No Facebook. No wine. No “I’m a celebrity, get me out of here”.

Did we mention no walks, no privacy and no sex?

Then there’s the ‘no coming back’ bit.

Are they for real?

On the way ... Tristan Perkins is in the competition for a one way trip to Mars in 2024. Picture: Calum Robertson
On the way ... Tristan Perkins is in the competition for a one way trip to Mars in 2024. Picture: Calum Robertson

TO BOLDLY GO...

University of South Australia engineering student, 21, is adamant of his hopes to emigrate to Mars and live out his life as a Martian.

He’s tense: Waiting to hear if he has won a place on the shortlist tomorrow for a one-way ticket to Mars as part of a quest to boldly go where no man has gone before.

The ticket to ride does not include a return fare, something Tristan says he has come to terms with leaving him eager for take off.

“It is a pretty hectic time — it is quite nerve wracking and a bit crazy waiting for the result but I am dealing with it OK,” he said.

“I had all last year to think about it and do my umming and ahhing but I am quite prepared to go and have my fingers crossed I will get to the next round.

“My family have been very good about it and are very supportive but overall the reaction from people has been quite mixed.

“A lot are really supportive and interested, others take the piss out of it, and everything in between.

“Most of my mates are on board with it and they can see it is an amazing opportunity — it already has opened doors for me here in terms of networking.”

Tristan noted in the days of Columbus and Captain James Cook there were new, unexplored frontiers on Earth where maps were blank.

Some of those maps had cautionary words “Here be dragons’ — for Tristan it may well be a case of ‘Here be aliens.”

“Knowing it is a one-way ticket was one of the toughest things to get over, but I have a sense of adventure, and to do something no one has ever done before and to be fully immersed in it for that length of time will be awesome.

“The possibilities are endless.”

Tristan’s fascination with space goes back to his childhood. His grandfather was a communications engineer with the missile program at Woomera and used to show Tristan ‘contraptions’ and the pair would star gaze.

He is not phased at the thought of a lengthy journey through space to get to the Red Planet.

“We took lots of car trips when I was young so I am used to amusing myself and dealing with confined spaces — and the zero gravity will be fun,” he said.

STMHOT15 space travel Mars One Imagery PICTURE SUPPLIED
STMHOT15 space travel Mars One Imagery PICTURE SUPPLIED

REALITY TV VERSUS REALITY

When interviewed about the prospects of a one-way mission to Mars late last year, Australian astrophysicist Dr Charley Lineweaver of the Planetary Sciences Institute at Mt. Stromlo Observatory was surprisingly upbeat: “It makes me think of Christopher Columbus … Some astronomers said, ‘Chris, the Earth is bigger than you think it is’ … and they were right. But he went out and tried, and found the New World.”

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But he also sounded a note of caution about a conflict between the traits that drive television ratings, and those needed for survival: “You’d get some interesting psychological problems, and that’s what they’d be selling. But that’s not conducive to survival. On the other hand, often the crazy stuff succeeds in a way nobody expects ... so long as the consequences are on the people choosing to do it.”

And crazy it is.

The Dutch not-for-profit organisation argues sponsorship, broadcasting rights and generous donations from the public will carry their contestants across the gulf of space to a new world.

Then there’s the $8bn gulf between their dreams and their powers.

With the release of the latest Mars One promotional video, Dr Lineweaver’s opinion is shifting.

There are too many one-liners which brush over key challenges: It sounds easy to “land on Mars”.

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“I just watched it,” he said late last week. “I think it misses the point. Whether you have a one way or a return ticket to Mars, the biggest hurdles are the technological and engineering ones. Without getting the engineering right you explode, burn up, suffocate and starve. You don’t leave a legacy …”

As the failed Beagle 2, Mars Polar Lander and Mars 96 probes of recent times have shown — it’s actually a hugely technical challenge.

Then actually living there presents a whole new set of problems.

Life station ... A Mars One conceptual image of the “modules” which would need to be assembled on Mars to make a safe refuge for astronauts. Source: MARS ONE
Life station ... A Mars One conceptual image of the “modules” which would need to be assembled on Mars to make a safe refuge for astronauts. Source: MARS ONE

BRAVE NEW WORLD

Yes, we know a lot more about what it will take to get to Mars, and survive, than ever before.

Rovers such as Curiosity and Opportunity have given us a clear — but not complete — picture of conditions on the remote planet’s surface.

We know colonists will face freezing temperatures, constant radiation and intense dust storms.

We know they’ll need mountains of food and oxygen to carry them over until the time they can produce their own.

We know they’ll need heavy engineering equipment to drill beneath the surface and into the ice-locked water reservoirs believed to be below.’

That’s right, believed.

As much as we know about Mars, there’s much more we don’t.

Staying sane is a serious issue.

Staying alive, however, will govern every moment of their lives. Especially if one needs to keep the ratings up to pay for it all.

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It’s a point Dr Lineweaver highlights.

“Mars One seems to be working on the assumption that the biggest hurdles are emotional and that these can be overcome by ‘emotional heroes’ that the public will be willing to pay big time to watch as they overcome being removed from the fundamental need for family, love and sex,” he says.

“But nuns do this and nobody seems particularly interested in how they deal with their isolation and celibacy.”

Dusty waste ... NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity catches its own late-afternoon shadow in this dramatically lit view eastwards across Endeavour Crater on Mars. Source; NASA
Dusty waste ... NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity catches its own late-afternoon shadow in this dramatically lit view eastwards across Endeavour Crater on Mars. Source; NASA

TOP GUNS

When the project to colonise Mars via a reality television show was launched in 2012, 200,000 people immediately put up their hand — and cash.

The 660 who remain are about to begin what is marketed as an intensive training program to equip ordinary students, housewives and office workers with all the skills they need to reach — and then settle — our barren next door neighbour.

At the end of it all — and if all goes well — four will be rewarded with a one-way ticket.

But will they be the “right stuff?”

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“Sending unphotogenic incompatible virgins to Mars is a pretty unpredictably volatile mixture,” Dr Lineweaver says. “I don’t think Mars One can get the finances from the emotional hurdles unless there is a lot of unpredictable sex on board. Maybe that is their plan.”

If the show rates well and gains a loyal audience, another four may soon follow. After that, it’s all up in the air. It is a one-way mission after all.

Sales pitch ... Is the gulf between Earth and Mars a step too far? Source: Mars One
Sales pitch ... Is the gulf between Earth and Mars a step too far? Source: Mars One

SO, WHAT ARE THEIR CHANCES?

One recent study said, even if all went well getting them to Mars, the enormity of the technical challenges such a colony faced would mean their life expectancy on the dusty, airless and irradiated surface was only 60 days.

And that’s without the human factor.

“If overcoming emotional hurdles were really the issue, they should be sending two very stable, intelligent 70 year old couples with Mars on their bucket list,” Dr Lineweaver says. “But Mars One seems to be choosing the young and naive.”

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So what’s Dr Lineweaver’s recipe for success?

“If they want to make money ... they should find horny young hunks and buxom babes.”

“If they could convince Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Beyonce and Jay-Z to go to Mars, then they would have enough promotion money for the highest quality engineers money can buy.”

After all, it would milk a double income stream: Those who want to see their stars in all their glory, and those who just want to ship them off the planet …

@JamieSeidel

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Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/space/mars-one-candidates-on-edge-as-final-colonist-set-to-be-chosen/news-story/1495835973451f0226cf9a8e92f8de2a