More than 200,000 would-be space explorers have expressed a desire to make a one-way trip to Mars. Are they all crazy?
On an early Sunday morning, about 60 planetary-level opposition leaders filled a small auditorium on the George Washington University campus. They gathered there in order to get acquainted with the plan to create an autonomous colony in space, and they hope to become the first settlers there, while all other inhabitants of the planet have only one option - to live and die on Earth.
"How many of you are ready to take a one-way trip to Mars?" asked the balding engineer on stage. His face was completely monochrome, with rigid, wrinkled folds that made him look like a scaled-down lunar landscape, and he also had slightly pointed ears. On his lapel was a badge that read: “Greetings! My name is: Bass."
As almost everyone in the audience raised their hands, Bas Lansdorp's lips curled into a smile. These people represent his support, and they are ready to become guinea pigs in a bold and unusual experiment. Just the day before, he had been a guest on CBS's This Morning program, during which he patiently explained his idea. “I just want to make sure I get it right,” said the slightly stunned host of the program. "If you go on this flight, then you will never come back." However, on that day, August 2013, at the first ever Million Martian Meeting, Lansdorp saw only his faithful in front of him. "Perfectly! It's easy to work with such people,”he said, breaking into a smile.
Many aliens sitting in armchairs had a special demographic, characteristic mainly of young people, the appearance of fans of the planet Mars: they had tattoos on their necks and arms, and on their faces - goatee beards and mustaches - a variation on the image of the parodist "Weird Ella" (Weird Al). But, in addition, women of a more respectable age were present in the room, as well as children who were still too young to have a driver's license. All of them were united by a strong belief in the main message of Lansdorp, the meaning of which is that people should move to other planets, and they should start now.
Several years ago, President Obama announced that the United States would send astronauts into Mars orbit in the mid-2030s, but budgetary constraints and sequestration have slowed the project down, if not at all. And even if NASA again returns to the implementation of this project, then, according to representatives of the space agency, such a manned flight will be carried out only if it becomes possible to return the astronauts back. Gathered in Washington, DC, such words were perceived as an act of infuriating bureaucratic caution.
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“The technology that can bring people back to life simply doesn't exist,” Lansdorp said, trying to raise the mood of his audience, “and it probably won't exist in 20 years. We must implement our project using what we already have today, and the only way is to fly to Mars and stay there forever."
Until three years ago, Lansdorp had practically nothing to do with Mars. A mechanical engineer by training, he co-owned a wind power startup whose goal was to generate electricity from several gliders tied together with a special halyard. However, in 2011, this Danish entrepreneur sold some of his assets in the energy business and began work on a great idea: if the government does not want to shell out for a flight to Mars or is unable to take risks, then private business should take its place.
“It became clear to me that for this to happen, I must do it myself,” he said, addressing those gathered in the hall. Together with Mars One co-founder Arno Wielders, Lansdorp developed a funding plan for a mission to Mars, trying to portray it as fun in the first place. After analyzing the specifics of the Olympic Games, Lansdorp found that granting the rights to broadcast these competitions to television companies earned more than a billion dollars.
A reality television show about the creation of the first-ever extraplanetary settlement, in his opinion, could cost much more - at least $ 6 or 7 billion, which would be necessary to prepare and launch a rocket with an appropriate payload.
A television show requires, of course, participants, and a gathering of potential Martians must play a role in this. Since April 2013, Lansdorp's team has been reviewing resumes sent from all over the world by people who agree to pay a modest initial admission fee to participate in the project (the amount depends on each specific country). The first phase of this venture ended last December, when the organizers reduced the number of participants to 1,058. These applicants will be interviewed and the group will be further reduced this year. Ultimately, only four people will be selected for the first flight - two men and two women, and each of them must be a representative of different continents of planet Earth. Their flight to Mars is scheduled for 2025.
The people gathered in the audience understood that they would have to go through a long selection with little chance of success, and even if they were selected, the project itself might not work. Nevertheless, the Mars One project gave hope to a huge number of people who previously had to cherish their unusual dreams only in private. During the casting, about 200 thousand people registered as candidates on the Mars One website, and the corresponding group of interested people on Facebook was 10 thousand people. One young guy with a tattoo came to a DC meeting wearing a T-shirt that stated the mood and spirit of all the people in the audience: “Bass is sending me to Mars” was written on his chest, while the inscription on the back said: “Thank you you, Bass, you're a great guy."
To some people who don't share the Martian dream - Earth-tied journalists, for example - this spirit seems a little quixotic at best, and suicidal at worst. If Lansdorp sends four people to live out their days on a harsh and desolate planet, then what is the point of such an enterprise? Is Bass a great guy or a dangerous megalomaniac? Lansdorp already has the answers to any doubters' questions: “People just can't imagine that there are other people who would like to do this,” he said, concluding his presentation. - They say that we are going to Mars in order to die. But we are certainly not going to fly to Mars in order to die. We will fly to Mars in order to live."
In January of this year, NASA specialists announced that they had found some kind of jelly-like donut on Mars. Or at least a stone that looked a bit like a cake with a white border around the edges and a strawberry-colored center. The fact that this kind of find became the subject of discussion by the media at the global level speaks not so much about its significance - in the end, it was about a simple stone, but about the desolate nature of the world in which this stone is located.
It has been 10 years since the Spirit and Opportunity space vehicles landed on the Red Planet. At that time, they traveled a distance of about 50 kilometers and took soil samples on a flat area, diverging in all directions and covered with pockmarks of a dull dark color. They measured temperatures that ranged from 20 degrees Celsius in the summer to minus 107 degrees Celsius during the Martian winter, frequent and severe dust storms were noted, and the Martian atmosphere, unsuitable for human survival, is composed primarily of carbon dioxide. In addition, there is a sufficient amount of radiation from cosmic rays and solar flares that can cause carcinogenic mutations in human DNA. Who would choose to live in such a hideous and terrible place?
During lunch for conference participants, I asked this question to a young man named Max Fagin. Forget about possible death on this flight, I said. Assume that there will be no computer glitches or failed landings, and that your spacecraft will not end up inside some giant fireball. Imagine not getting sick or breaking any limb or finding yourself without the help of a doctor. Let's assume that everything will go well technically. But then what about all that you leave behind you forever? And what will happen to the feeling of falling snow, a light breeze or swimming on a hot day?
“I’m going to be incredibly sad about all of these things,” said Feigin, an undergraduate student in the aerospace department at Purdue University. “But the whole point of going to Mars is that you get something better in return. Anyone has the opportunity to go to the ocean. Anyone can visit the forest. These are wonderful things, but they are available to everyone. And I will have a chance to see the sunrise on Mars. I will have a chance to stand at the foot of Mount Olipm, one of the highest mountains in the solar system. I will have a chance to see two moons in the sky. I just can't imagine that I can get nostalgia for the life that 6 or 7 billion people are currently leading."
There were several other Martians at the table next to us; we ate sandwiches and sushi - food that astronauts can only dream of. I asked Feigin if all this novelty would not become quite commonplace in a short time? What happens when you see the sunrise and sunset hundreds of times and walk around Mount Olympus? What happens when you're in a cramped space with nothing but grim work to prevent premature death? That said, I picked up the tuna roll delivered from Whole Food with my chopsticks. What happens when you are forced to eat small leaves of lettuce grown in a special container and, moreover, without any spices?
Feigin gave me the opportunity to finish my speech - his face expressed calm condescension. “You look at things from a narrow perspective,” he said. - It seems strange to you only because of when and where you live. Are you going to ask the Eskimo how he can withstand all this boredom associated with snow and stones?"
I hesitated for a second and then fell silent. Why, in fact, should I take my spoiled life on Earth as a starting point? Perhaps life on Mars will not be very different from the life of thousands of generations. Later I will find a refutation of his arguments: the Arctic is simply teeming with all kinds of wild animals and plants, and this is not at all like the lifeless desert that a person will find on Mars.
And, in fact, the Eskimos are characterized by high rates of suicide and depression. But I am sure that all these facts will not matter to Feigin. In 2010, he spent two weeks at a tiny research station in the Utah desert, where students tried to simulate the conditions of being on Mars. Each time they left the premises of their station, they put on a spacesuit. “I didn't spend as much time there as I wanted,” he told me.
What about your family? My voice was full of despair, as if I needed him to perceive Mars One as leading to suffering and death. However, Feigin remained steadfast. The colonists will be more in touch with home than the soldiers in Vietnam, Feigin said, and certainly more so than the migrants who came to America before the first transatlantic cable was laid. The first inhabitants on Mars will exchange video footage via email with their family members. “My parents have been calm about this option for some time now,” Feigin said. "They understand that in the end they will lose me, because this planet will lose me."
Later that evening, after all the presentations were over and the Martians were gathering for a trip to the National Air and Space Museum, I found Lansdorp next to the stage. He had just finished an interview and the TV crew was already packing their gear. He seemed weary of his publicity, his smile seemed tortured as he had to answer the same questions since the announcement of the Mars project. “Saving humanity is not on my list of reasons why it should be done,” he said to a small group of journalists. "I started this project because I wanted to fly there myself."
Although he calls himself a lifelong Mars enthusiast, Lansdorp did not have the necessary experience to plan a mission like this alone. After graduating from the University of Twente in Holland, he worked on systems development for future space stations and was in contact with payload manager Wielders of the European Space Agency. “He knows everything about space, and I know nothing,” Lansdorp said. Wilders told him that a one-way flight is possible if they can raise a lot of money. And then they came up with their plan to sell broadcasting rights and broadcast their trip to Mars on television.
Their concept had some flaws. Big event programs generate a lot of money, but they are often short-lived and action-packed (the Olympics mentioned by Lansdorp are a good example in this sense). The creators of the Mars One project want their show to last for decades, with most of the airtime in the next 10 years being devoted to the intense crew training process. What happens if the television networks are not interested in covering a project that has been ongoing for many years? What if no one likes this show? And what happens if all goes well at first, but then the colonists want to get their privacy protected and turn off the cameras?
Lansdorp hired one of Europe's most renowned reality TV professionals, Paul Roemer, the creator of the Dutch Big Brother program, to develop all the necessary parts. He emailed this Dutch producer with a hidden mailing, and immediately got a response from him (“This is amazing! - says Lansdorp. - You are establishing contact with a media expert, and he turns out to be a fan of science fiction!”) In June, representatives of the project Mars One has signed a contract with Darlow Smithson Production, a subsidiary of the firm where Roemer previously worked as Chief Creative Officer. The show being created will document the selection process and may air as early as 2015.
As for rocket technology, according to representatives of the Mars One project, nothing will be done on its own - Lansdorp wants to purchase all the equipment ready-made or develop some samples together with private suppliers. He expects to use an upgraded version of the Falcon 9 rocket, which is produced by SpaceX, and the descent capsule will be manufactured by SpaceX or Lockhead Martin. It will also need a couple of rovers, not the likes of NASA's latest galloping robots, but vehicles capable of leveling the surface on Mars and stacking thin-film solar panels in preparation for the arrival of the settlers.
The schedule for the Mars One project is quite ambitious - perhaps too much. It is not yet clear if Lansdorp's contractors will be able to tweak their technology (for ATVs, for life support units, and so on) to match the needs of the mission itself and the timeline for its implementation. And given the costs of recent, much more modest flights to the Red Planet - the Mars Science Laboratory, which included only landing the Curiosity rover, cost $ 2.5 billion - Landsdorp's proposed check for his Mars project seems pretty understated.
While Mars One representatives are not going to elaborate on how much money they have in the bank, they most likely managed to collect only a small part of what is needed. “Right now, the weakest link is really fundraising,” Lansdorp said at the last meeting. - If we already had 6 billion dollars in the bank, I would be very confident that we will be successful. However, convincing people who should give money in advance to finance all equipment is our biggest challenge. Even the would-be Martians attending the DC meeting had some doubts about the Mars One project.
“We understand that it may end in failure. We know that this is a risky undertaking,”one of them said in an interview with me. However, this is not really the problem. Lansdorp showed that their path to Mars should not be blocked by budget-cutting bureaucrats. They don't have to wait for guys like Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, or Dennis Tito, a millionaire who plans to fly around Mars in 2021.
Earlier this year, more than 8,000 people pledged to transfer $ 300,000 for the Mars One project, and this was done on the Indiengogo crowdfunding site. A few years ago, all these dreamers would have been left alone with their disappointment. Now they meet online and hold conferences. The present Martians now have their own motion, and it is growing.
When I tell my friends about the Mars One project, I get the impression that many of them take it personally; they call Martians sleepwalkers or worse. In the Facebook group of aspiring Martians, this reflective hostility is the subject of much and prolonged discussion. One user wrote in January: “I'm sure I'm not the first to notice the following: wherever and whatever is published about the Mars One project, we are told (in the comments) that we are crazy, fans, people with psychological disabilities; we are told that this is suicide, that we will soon be deeply disappointed, that our mission is a hoax, that the necessary technology does not exist, and in some cases we are told that we deserve to die for participating in this project."
Lansdorp sees it too. There are people who want to fly to Mars, he said during the conference, and there are those who do not want to. "These two groups of people will never really understand each other." However, a simple lack of understanding does not explain the irritation that arises at the moment when the Martians read about telling the public about their dream. And it's not just that their flight seems complicated or crazy. It seems that they just want to escape from planet Earth. But what is wrong with our planet? - we would like to ask. Is life here not good enough for you? Or perhaps there is some personal explanation: Am I not good enough for you?
“It has nothing to do with anything rational,” Lansdorp said to me, explaining why people want to fly to Mars. - It's almost the same as love. You want it for a certain reason, but you cannot really explain it, and sometimes one love is stronger for you than others. Lansdorp started this project because he wanted to fly to Mars himself, but now that his girlfriend is expecting a baby, he says he has given up on the idea of being among the first to fly there. He wants to see his child grow. “But I understand that there are people who want to participate in the project,” he said.
I don't want to part with my girlfriend either. When I look at the sky, I have a feeling of a miracle - this is a movement of the mind, but not the heart. However, during our conversation, I recall a meeting with astronaut Michael J. Massimino, which I once attended. Someone asked him what feelings a person experiences during a spacewalk, when he looks at the Earth from afar? He said it was the most stunning picture he had ever seen, but at the same time he felt a deep sadness. Why? Because he understood that he would never be able to share the sensations of what he saw with those people who are most dear to him.
In this sense, a one-way flight to Mars evokes a special kind of emotion. The astronaut does not leave his family and does not choose another, stronger love, taking the place of the first. Instead, he is sent into outer space on their behalf, on behalf of everyone who remains down there, regardless of physical or emotional cost. Those who wish to become Martians talk about sleeping under a sky lit by two moons, but they also understand that, like any other people, they will be alone in the history of time. And that's why their flight matters - for us, as well as for them: they will live on Mars so that we, the rest of people, do not have to do the same.
Just before I was about to leave the DC conference, I met another Martian woman, Leila Zucker. She is a doctor, in her 40s, happily married, and yet she has a tendency to push it all aside. “I can work to make life better on Earth while I'm here,” she told me. “But I can make life on Earth better by being on Mars. The idea that I'm running away or something like that … no, I don't. People who think this way are limited and scared. The whole point of this idea is to expand the habitat of the human race."
Before that, she took part in a panel discussion and answered questions from people gathered in the hall. “None of us are planning to die, but we all understand that it can happen,” she said at one point. "You cannot get my life for this, but I give it because this is my dream." As the discussion was drawing to a close, she suddenly sang:
“I want to fly to the Red Planet Mars
But the Bass didn't take me away
I want to fly to the Red Planet Mars
And now I gaze longingly at the stars
But I don't care that I wasn't taken for space
I am happy for the future of the human race
Someday we will fly to the red planet Mars
Because Mars One is paving the way for the stars!"
Daniel Engber ("Popular Science", USA)