Mars One: What we know about the Mars One project

Mars One, the project to send humans on a one way trip to Mars, has attracted so much interest from all walks of life. Even a number of Africans have made applications to join the Mars One Mission which is scheduled for 2024 – and should it succeed will mark a major step in our exploration of our solar system.

But who would want to apply for a one way ticket to Mars? More than 700 possible candidates have so far applied for the Dutch not-for profit Mars One project. They will be whittled down by next year into ‘several international teams’, Mars One said in May. Once chosen, the explorers will have full-time training to prepare themselves for the rigours of Mars.

Here is what we know about Mars and the prospects of the Mars One Project:

• One way ticket to Mars. According to Mars One, Earth return vehicles that can take off from Mars are currently unavailable, and untested technology and such mission designs incur far greater costs – so there is no coming back!
• Those on the Mars One spacecraft will have to survive the between seven and nine months travel to Mars – that is when using the current space technology.
• Mars is the fourth planet from the sun and in our solar system is known as the ‘red planet’ because of the iron oxide in the surface soil that gives it a reddish appearance. It has a very thin atmosphere and no structural magnetic field - although scientists have found evidence suggesting that it once had both. Earth’s magnetic field acts as a shield against the sun’s harsh radiation, which otherwise would kill most biological matter on Earth’s surface.
• Mars is currently home to five spacecraft: three orbiting it, and two – Curiosity and Opportunity, exploring its surface.
• Olympus Mons, a volcano on Mars, is the highest known mountain on a planet in our solar system (the ­highest mountain in the solar system is actually on an asteroid called Vestas). At 22km high, Olympus Mons is nearly three times higher than Mount Everest.
• The surface temperature of Mars varies between about -90°C and -5°C. The coldest place on Earth, Antarctica, has been known to reach -90°C.
• Gravity on Mars is about 38% of the gravity on Earth. So, if you were on Mars and you were to jump, you would vault three times higher than here at home.
• Like Earth, Mars has two polar ice caps. Scientists have estimated that, if they were to melt, the surface of the rocky planet would be covered in about 11m of water. Last year, Curiosity discovered subsurface water, with the soil having a water content of about 4% up to the depth of about an arm’s length. Mars also has ample natural sources of nitrogen, the primary element (80%) in the air we breathe.
• People living, dying and being buried on Mars could also pose a problem to space science. The planet may be contaminated by Earth bacteria and organisms hitching a ride on a spacecraft making it difficult for scientists to determine whether a life form existed on Mars or was introduced there by the Mars One explorers.
• Although Mars One does not say where candidates will receive their training, it does say that, as part of the final selection, “the groups will be expected to demonstrate their ability to live in harsh living conditions and work together under difficult circumstances … in a copy of the Mars outpost”. This will be televised.
• Critics believe, with the current technology, the Mars One project is a suicide mission.
• Mars One says that the life-support system will be similar to that used on the International Space Station. The living units, each with a total area of 200m2, which is about the size of a tennis court, will house four people, and the different units will be connected by passageways.
• Mars One’s human habitation will begin with a rover, to be launched in 2020. It will be followed by two living units, two life-support systems and two supply units, which will be linked and activated by the intelligent rover.
• The first deployment of humans on the Mars One mission will cost US$6-billion, and US$4-billion for each successive mission. Curiosity, with its mobile science laboratory, had a price tag of about US$2.5-billion. Unlike institutions such as Nasa, which has a dedicated government budget, Mars One is crowdsourcing the funding.
• Radiation is a serious threat to the Mars One explorers. A 500-day mission on the surface [of Mars] would bring the total exposure to about one sievert [a measure of radiation]. Exposure to a dose of 1Sv is associated with a 5% increase in fatal cancer risk. Mars One does not list radiation as one of the challenges. It says that the living units will be buried under the soil to shield their inhabitants from it.