Apply to Become a Martian Today!

In my last post I wrote about The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, which is a fantastic piece of fiction. So it was a bit of a shock when I saw an article on the NPR website about the hundreds of thousands of people who are applying to live on Mars (202,586 people, to be exact).

Mars One is a Dutch organization which plans to "establish a permanent human settlement on Mars" by 2025. According to the selection criteria on their website, applicants must "see the connection between [their] internal and external self", use humor as a "creative resource, used appropriately as an emerging contextual response", and "have a “Can do!” attitude". 

We Americans are leading the pack: 24% of the applicants hail from the United States. So what exactly is their reasoning for signing up?

Maybe they want to embrace the Good Ol' American Adventurous Spirit. But that's hardly a good enough reason for 48,000 Americans to literally leave the planet with the knowledge that they will never be able to return or see their families again. This is a "permanent commitment," (NPR). 

Are the applicants hoping for a new start? Are they willing to give up their lives to satisfy their curiosity? Curiosity killed the astronauts, after all. But satisfaction won't bring them back because it's a one way ticket to Mars. 

Would you sign up to go to Mars? See the full list of qualifications here if you're interested in applying!