See The 16 Asians Shortlisted For A One-Way Ticket To Mars. No, They Won't Ever Come Back
They are among the 100 would-be astronauts shortlisted for the one way trip to the Red planet.
By Sadho Ram — 21 Feb 2015, 06:31 PM — Updated almost 10 years ago
The 16 Asians, selected from over 200,000 applicants from around the world, are a step closer to having their names immortalised in the pages of history. They're in the running, among 100 finalists, to be the first human settlers on Mars!
A breakdown of the 100 shortlisted candidates:
39 from the Americas,
31 from Europe,
16 from Asia,
7 from Africa, and
7 from Oceania.
Of the 100, 8 are aged below 22, and the oldest is 60
There is no typical candidate; they range from physicists to doctors to chefs to software developers. The 100 were selected from a previous round of 660 candidates after being interviewed by the Mars One chief medical officer.
qz.com
However, only 24 of these 100 are ultimately going to be selected to be the first human beings to touch Martian soil, and there will be no return journey. To put it simply, it's a death trip!
The Martian soil that will ultimately become their final resting place!
Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSSWhile they surely know the stakes, these intrepid explorers face some grim odds if the mission ever gets off the ground. An independent research team from MIT reviewed the Mars One plan and concluded that it will only take 68 days for the first person to die. Mars One CEO Bas Lansdorp disputes that analysis.
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So who are these 16 adventurous Asians who are expected to live, work, and die on Mars? We list few of their profiles below:
1. Jaymee Del Rosario, Philippines. Age: 27
Jaymee says:
"I am an Entrepreneur who thrives to constantly come up with ideas and I am a risk taker.
Currently, I am a CEO/Founder of International Metal Source who distribute Raw Material Metals and Exotic Alloys to Aerospace, Defense and Commercial Industries World Wide since 2009 and I am also a co-owner of Bounce Core Platform, a fitness equipment that is beneficial for rehabilitation use and mainstream exercising.
I want to offer my life experience, knowledge and skills to the Mars One team to achieve the goal for preserving humanity."
2. Xuan Linh Vu, Viet Nam. Age: 32
Xuan says:
"I am software developer by training and an entrepreneur by experience and passion.
As an avid traveller I always look for opportunities to travel and live the places. I spent 6 years living in Singapore, 3 years in US, 6-months in Chile and short stays in UK, France and China. I believe only by living the place you will get the full experience.
Mars is the unique place that any explorative mind like me would dream of."
3. Sabrina Lynn Surovec, Japan. Age: 36
Sabrina says:
"I’m Sabrina, a world traveler who’s visited over 25 countries and lived in 3.
I’m currently residing in Japan, where I work as a teacher, musician, writer, editor, and photographer.
My lifelong goal is to have visited every continent, immersed myself in various cultures, and finally take to the stars!"
4. Minerva Rañeses, Philippines. Age: 24
Minerva says:
"Please do not judge me based on the cover of my video. Haha! (It’s just awkward timing at its best.) Internally, I see myself as an intellectual wanderer, for I seek growth in knowledge and philosophy.
I don’t decide based on monetary or materialistic returns, but on the experience I will garner. As of now, career-wise, I’m a drifter. There is so much to learn, and keeping to a linear path seems a bit too constricting.
I’ve been focusing in adventuring lately. As for my profession, I tell people I’m a writer."
5. Xiaoxia Lin, China. Age: 31
Xiaoxia says:
"This is a story about this small living breathing thing that lives on the planet Earth. She could be one of descendants of the frozen wanderers – comets or the planet Mars, no one knows.
She’s been amazed by the existence of her own, of life, planets and space. She’s been obsessed with the fascinated Universe, been wanting to know her whole life if there is life beyond Earth.
One day the theory of Earth’s life originates on Mars blew her mind, ever since then she’s been dreaming to escape gravity, land on Mars and seek for a concrete answer. Another day, Mars One mission came along, she took her first step towards her dream going to Mars by participating in the mission."
6. Najeeb Waleed, Iraq. Age: 38
Najeeb says:
"I am a computer engineer, computer science instructor, and a senior software developer. I also perform some consultancy in the field of database and web development. I obtained a master in computer science and bachelors in computer engineering. I am currently perusing a PHD degree in computer science & engineering."
7. Elaheh Nouri, Iran. Age: 21
Elaheh says:
"A student of architecture, when I was 16 I fall in love with Cosmology. After few time I found that I don’t know much about the universe that I was a part of that. I wanted to know more and more.
I really want to be in this program. I mean I think I can try ...because in every moment in my life, I was looking for an important purpose.something that would be dream for me and useful for all. I think it’s a big jump for humanity in history and I want to be a part of this change."
8. Etsuko Shimabukuro, Japan. Age: 50
Etsuko, who has been listed in The Guardian's the top 10 hopefuls list, says:
"The First Sushi Bar on Mars. The girl had a telescope and dreamed of living on another planet someday. As a young woman she studied archaeology to understand where she came from. She explored limestone caves to feel the million years of planet Earth. She studied computer science because she was fascinated by the potentiality of the virtual world.
Then she went into the IT industry to work with people blessed with incredible intelligence. In her thirties she backpacked for two years around the world to understand humanity and life on Earth. She also walked 7,500km (4,600 miles) through Japan to be a little help for charity and to understand every corner of her homeland. In her forties she ran for seven days in the Sahara desert in Morocco to test her mental and physical boundaries.
She became an ascetic mountain priest in order to live simply. Later, she studied Japanese cuisine to make the world healthy. She presently lives and works in Mexico as a Japanese chef to share the wisdom of her ancestors.
She is very grateful to have had so many opportunities to fulfil her life on Earth. Now she plans to go to Mars to be at the forefront of human evolution and to open the first sushi bar on Mars. Her life is one big experiment.
Once the final 24 astronauts are selected, a reality show will follow their every move as they prepare to leave Earth to die in Mars, in order to live there!
The project will cost an estimated $6 billion, a good part of which will be raised by the proposed reality TV programme which will “exclusively follow the selection and training of the world’s first one-way astronauts to Mars” according to a Mars One press release.
However, Bas Landorp, the co-founder and CEO of Mars One, was quick to distance himself from this term: “First of all, I don’t like the term ‘reality TV’. In principle it’s a good term but nowadays it means the Kardashians and Jersey Shore and of course those aren’t real.
“I prefer to compare the mission to the Olympic games. We select the best of the best for a near impossible task. They will do things that almost no one else can do - just like the Olympics,” he continued.
So when will the final 24 will be sent to Mars? In 2025!
Mars One plans to use SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket to launch the necessary payloads into space before using a modified Dragon module (also from SpaceX) to shepherd the astronauts to Mars.
Mars One says that “No new major developments or inventions are needed to make the mission plan a reality,” but it will still have to design and build a lander, spacesuits, living units, rovers, and a communications system.
qz.com
Mars One has come under criticism for what many in the space and science community believe is any overly aggressive timeline for sending colonists to Mars.
One assessment of the Mars One mission by Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate engineering students concluded that the technology required to establish a viable human habitat on Mars was not currently available and unlikely to be developed by the time Mars One proposes to launch its first colonizing voyage to the planet.
The bleak view is that anyone traveling to Mars on the Mars One timeline probably wouldn't last very long trying to live on the planet's surface, if they managed to survive the trip at all.
pcmag.com