The Next Generation of reality TV star wannabes apply to
take part in a new show which will see them live and die on Mars.
Life On Mars: The Reality TV
Show
By Lisa Dowd, Midlands Correspondent
The application process to take part in a reality-style show and
become one of the first people to land and live on Mars and never return home to
Earth is drawing to a close.
More than 165,000 'wannabe astronauts' have applied for four initial places
to colonise the red planet despite it only being a one-way ticket.
Melissa Ede, 52, a transsexual taxi-driver from Hull, is one of 7,000
applicants from the UK hoping to be picked.
She said: "The attraction's got to be going down in history, being
remembered.
"Ever since a little child I've wanted to do something where I was going to
make my mark on this Earth, this is the way of doing it. Hopeful Melissa Ede, from Hulll, says she's
'done enough' on Earth
"My parents always used to put me down. They always said I'm on cloud
cuckoo-land and I live on a different planet. Well I could say actually, I
do.
"On Earth I feel I've done enough now, I've completed all my challenges that
I had in life. I'll be able to wave down at everybody."
As well as the UK, applicants from China, Brazil, India and Russia have paid
on average £17 to cover the administration costs of the selection process for
the Mars One project - the brainchild of Big Brother co-creator Paul Römer.
The applications close today. Big Brother co-creator Paul Romer is behind
the project
By 2015, the astronauts selected for the trip will start their training,
using a simulation of conditions on the planet where they'll learn to repair
their equipment, grow food and deal with long periods of isolation.
The team's home on Mars will be operational by 2021. Their living pods will
provide them with oxygen, water and electricity.
The first crew will set off for Mars a year later on a journey that will take
between seven to eight months.
Dr Michael Martin-Smith, head of the Hull and East Riding Astronomical
Society, said: "There will be rugged conditions with an inflatable habitat.
"Every rocket that lands with a crew will bring an empty stage, it won't be
dead metal, it will be useful.
"They can extract radiation protection which is another big issue-are we
going to get fried living there? Yes, if we live out there in a swimsuit on the
surface, but if you build a nice igloo-type structure using Martian soil
radiation protection can be created."
The estimated £4bn cost of the mission will be met by television rights and
other kinds of media sponsorship and spin-offs.
Dr Adam Baker, an expert of space engineering at Kingston University, branded
the project "a big publicity stunt". Some say the Mars One mission is merely a TV
publicity stunt
He said: "They're doing very well to get the public fired up about going and
some time in next decade or two we might see a commercial model ... but in the
current form it's unlikely to succeed.
"There are a number of issues with Mars radiation. It doesn't have the same
level of atmosphere to protect you from things like solar flares, dust is a
problem, how toxic it is to human life in the long run? We don't know enough
about that."
But, the biggest challenge could be finding people who can cope with never
returning home.
Psychotherapist Lucy Beresford said: "The main thing the organisers will be
looking for is emotional resilience.
"Are these individuals capable of functioning on a different planet without
any access ever again to their loved ones, friends and family? What are the
qualities of their attachment needs and are they self-sufficient?
"The kind of people who might be attracted to this kind of expedition are
adventure seekers, thrill seekers, people who want to have a life that's very
different to the norm, who find ordinary daily activity mundane, and they want a
sense of adventure.
"They probably aren't thinking ahead to the fact that they might not come
back."
