I’m talking
about Mars One, the foundation led by Bas Lansdorp, which completed the
application stage for the selection of possible future inhabitants of the Red
Planet a few months ago.
Mars Initiative, the
non-profit association of which I’m an Italian representative, is keeping an
eye on Mars One. The purpose of Mars Initiative is to raise funds to be
delivered to first project that will bring humans on Mars and, at least
from its premises, Mars One seems to be the closest to realisation, if only for
the fact that it identifies year 2023 as landing date of the first settlers,
that is about ten years earlier than, for example, the smoky intentions of
NASA.
But let’s
see first of all what it is.
Mars One
expects to select, among all those who have applied, the astronauts that
will be sent in the number of four every two years starting from 2022.
Obviously these will be first subjected to a lengthy training. Between 2016
and 2021 satellites, rovers and habitats will be sent, ready to
receive the first four settlers. In 2033 twenty persons will be already
living on Mars.
The idea of
Mars One, beyond the technical problems still to be solved, is quite simple
and its simplicity is guaranteed by the absence of a return trip, which
reduces costs and gives the entire project a greater charm. We talk, in fact,
of populating a new planet other than Earth. The historical,
technological and scientific implications are immense.
But how
much is such a venture feasible from the human point of view?
The two men
and two women sent to Mars will surely be well selected and well trained, but
it is not really possible to prepare them for what awaits them. The reason
is simple: nobody knows it. They will be the first to discover it.
Those who
are chosen will enter history, become famous, but would never enjoy their being
a celebrity. In fact, they’re going to live for the rest of their life in
the midst of a desert, imprisoned in their habitats, in their suits or
their rovers, without ever really being outdoors, knowing for sure
that they will never return.
What
happens if they do not get along? If one or more of them has a nervous
breakdown? If they get ill? If they no longer follow the rules?
Especially
at the beginning, when they are only four or eight and the isolation is
something tangible (on Mars it is not even possible to communicate in real
time with Earth), some problems will certainly arise. And it is not said that
the increase of the population can solve them. The element that perhaps might
be more difficult to accept is that there is no possibility of rethinking.
If you don’t adapt, for whatever reason, you cannot return to Earth.
This
certainty personally terrifies me. I think in a sense that a person who accepts
this certainty is a bit crazy (in a good way). But I wonder how that
person could become at the time when this idea is turned into reality.
The idea of
spending the rest of my life on Mars had struck my imagination many years
ago, when there was no Mars One, but I read an article on the web which
presented such an initiative as something destined to become true sooner or
later. Just that little I had read, along with the ideas spread by Robert
Zubrin on the subject of the colonisation of Mars, are the basis of my
sci-fi series “Red Desert”. Only after publishing the first book in Italy
I don’t
know if Mars One will become a reality so quickly, because time is tight,
anyway I hope the landing of man on Mars will happen as soon as possible.
Although I would never want to be part of those brave (and crazy) people, I
would really like to see such an achievement for mankind in the course of my
life.
The following video was used by Mars One during the application campaign. Isn’t it stunning?
A previous version of this article has been originally published in Italian on Anakina.net.
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