Humans are natural explorers who would want go to places but some are born to go to extremes just to satiate their thirst for an adventure of a lifetime.
"Most of us want to explore, want to go new places, and then it's just a question of: How much are you willing to give up to do it?" This is what Leila Zucker, one of the 705 hopefuls who made it in the first round of screening process of the Mars One mission, remarked during an interview with CNN.
An emergency medicine physician in Washington, 46-year-old Zucker was informed by her husband about the daring one-way trip to Mars project of a Netherlands-based nonprofit organization, which aimed to send the first four people on Mars by 2024. Zucker and her husband are both self-confessed space enthusiasts and she could not just let this chance pass, even it means being away from her spouse for the rest of her life.
Mars One's project is the first of its kind, an ambitious one at that, but it is still unclear if the funds they would be raising could keep up with the technology the project demands. A reality television show would be a good idea, but Mars One chief executive Bas Lansdorp hopes to acquire "a range of funding scenarios" to support the six billion dollars already allotted for the project.
It is a one-way trip because of the apparent "technological and financial limitations" the entire mission is undergoing but despite the hazards these applicants may encounter, it seemed like no one in the pool could care less.
Even Zucker admitted she is still having doubts whether the mission would take off or not, but if it does, she would still go for it.
Perhaps, the thought of being part of an incredible feat of the human race and their names etched in the history of the first human colonization outside Earth thrilled the aspirants so much so that they have overlooked its dangers. After all, most of them said, they would all die and they would rather make their lives worth living by helping humanity.
"Well, we would die up there eventually. It's not like we're coming back. But someone has to do it," Stephanie Buck, a mother from Sacramento, California, told CBS13.
A candidate also interviewed by CNN named Dan Carey shared the same sentiment in spite of making his wife very unhappy with his decision to leave her and his two children in college just for him to take part in a trip that would never let him go back to his home planet.
"She's concerned that she's going to have to watch me die on television," said 52-year-old Carey of his wife.
To some candidates, it would be their most favorite food that they would miss should they live in Mars forever. Zucker said she would miss the hamburgers while Carey shared he would drop much weight for him to be able to hoard as many chocolate as he can on the way to his new home since there is a weight limit imposed per individual going to space.
"The first hardest thing to give up would obviously be my husband," Zucker said. "The second hardest thing would be meat."
