‘EXPANDING CONSCIOUSNESS’

By Elizabeth Coady

“WHEN MY LIFE IS OVER, I WANT TO HAVE LEFT A TRACE,”‘ SAYS Stefan Günther of Germany, explaining why he’s willing to leave his wife and three children to live permanently on the planet Mars.

“…This is what drives me,” he says in One Way Astronaut, a short film exploring Bas Lansdorp’s Mars One mission to settle Mars. “With a mission like this you will make your mark. For the children and grandchildren, to make sure you don’t fade away. So people in the future may say, ‘He was among the first to go to Mars.'”

Günther, 44, is one of the 78,000 people who’ve applied to be part of Lansdorp’s plan to colonize the Red Planet. The mission — or science fiction, depending on your point of view, is the “most important thing going on in the world today,” according to Robert Zubrin, president of the Mars Society.

On Saturday, a group of space buffs which included several dozen applicants, met at the Million Martian Meeting in Washington, D.C. where Lansdorp proselytized his project.

“How many of you want to go on a one-way trip to Mars?” Lansdorp asked the assembled crowd. Space.com reports that nearly everyone there raised their hands.

The meeting ended with a viewing of One Way Astronaut, which explores the question of why the earthbound would be willing to leave.

“Over there I would understand things that I don’t understand here,” 21-year-old Beatriz Roriz of Brazil, among the 20 percent of applicants who are women, muses in the film. “In that way Mars would be my new home, and I will be comfortable there.”

“We cannot deny humanity this opportunity,” says Mars One hopeful, 32-year-old Henri Jacquiman of Belgium, the father to two children. “…We conquered earth, air and water. We will also conquer space.”

Independence, intelligence, mental strength and the ability to work in isolation are must-have traits for Mars astronaut-wannabes.

Planners are aiming to land a four-person crew on the planet in April 2023 during an initial mission projected to cost $6 billion. Lansdorp is hoping to underwrite much of the project with a uniquely earthly endeavor: by selling the rights to broadcasting of the settlement as a reality TV series.

Below is the trailer for One Way Astronaut; you can pay to see the full 55 minute film here.