What Parents Tell Their Kids When They Plan to Die on Mars

Mars One has winnowed down the number candidates for their first trip to Mars from over 100,000 applicants to just 100 finalists. Regardless of whether you think that Mars One will ever get off the ground, those 100 people sure do. As one finalist, the biologist and writer Chris Patil, told me, "shit just got a whole lot more real." '

Over a series of emails with some of the selected finalists, a picture began to emerge of what it's like to begin seriously planning leaving the world behind. Canadian journalist Karen Cumming told me that her eyes "were bugging out like a character in a Hanna-Barbera cartoon" when she opened the email that told her she was a finalist.

"I started pacing the floor with my hand over my mouth, whispering 'Oh My God!' over and over again…I was utterly gobsmacked," she said. "This whole thrill ride has always felt real to me, but now it feels like it's been turned up a notch. A big notch."

"When I got the news that I'd made the next round, my reaction was a fairly complex mixture of "YES!!!!" and 'Wow…now I really need to think about this.'" Patil said. "The next round will involve travel and physically relocating for periods of time, and that will have ramifications for my relationship, friendships, job, and finances. I realize that is somewhat dry and practical, but at this point I'm basically weighing a 1 in 25 chance of going on a mission to Mars, if such a mission ever flies, against the risk of blowing up my life and abandoning everything I care about."

I was glad that Patil brought these two things up. 1. They may not ever even go—MIT researchers, for instance, concluded the trip is probably more difficult than Mars One may be accounting for—so there's a lurking possibility that even if you're selected, and you do all of the training, and live life like you're going to Mars, that it could come to naught. The only thing more disruptive than that would be actually going to Mars.

The candidates all seemed ready for the sacrifice. Most felt that even helping to make a serious gesture that humans are ready to travel to Mars was worth it—if only to inspire future Mars explorers. Cumming is working on a website to address how the idea of going to Mars has changed her perspective on Earth.

"There's really no substitute for human 'boots on the ground,' especially if trained scientists are wearing those boots," said Patil, a trained scientist.

"The human eye is far superior to any visible-light camera yet developed, especially when paired with the unmatched processing capability of our brains," finalist George W. Hatcher said.

It is, of course, a colossal commitment. Consider the stakes: for the rest of your life, you're a Martian settler. There's no going back; there's no going home at the end of the day. There's no going outside, no vacations, no more holidays with your family. No more family weddings, reunions, or funerals. Your life, as you've known it, ends. Your world, literally will change.

And the people and place you love that will be left behind also have to deal with this possibility's creep towards reality.

"My mother is 94, and God bless her, has really come around in the last year or so," Cumming said. "Initially, she was very upset to think that it was a one-way ticket. Now she's so used to all the fuss, she tells me what she needs at the grocery store this week 'before I go to Mars.'"

"My mother and father don't want me to leave Earth, it's getting more and more emotional and that will be really tough at the end," Robert P. Schroder, another finalist from Germany, told me.

Schroder is 27, and the rest of his life (at least until the round 4 narrowing) will be planned around the possibility of spending the rest of it on Mars. "I won't have kids," he said, wishing to spare a child the pressure of media and life without a father. And the mere idea of mission, the possibility, will impact his future relationships. "It's not like I want to stay single until I would fly to Mars, but in a relationship that Mars mission will be a topic."

George W. Hatcher, a NASA engineer, already has two Earth kids, who he said "are way too young right now to understand the prospect of a one way trip, but if I am selected, I have at least a decade to talk to them about it." Nonetheless, he considers his children his top priority for whatever time he has left on Earth.

"My primary goal before departure would be the spiritual education of my children," Hatcher said. "I would plan to continue fulfilling my half of this obligation through recorded video and the written word as best I could from Mars. I would spend as much time as possible with my children, wife, family and friends. My wife and I are currently narrowing down the list of must-see travel destinations."

Hatcher was the only one who mentioned the idea of coming back to Earth. His goal was to attempt a return after 15 years, so 25 years from now, which means, among other things, lifting weights in the reduced Martian gravity.

Hatcher was also the only one who mentioned the prospect of dying in our emails. "Landing on Mars is likely to be the highest risk portion of the trip. I would be feeling more than a little anxious, but relieved to know that if something did go wrong on entry, it would be over quickly," he said.

Schroder told me he's starting his list of things to do on Earth before he leaves—starting with eating a wide variety of Earth foods—which makes the whole thing sound a lot like dying, doesn't it?

Still, everyone I talked to said they'd maintain contact with Earth.

"During free time I would be perusing my daily static internet uplink; requesting transmission of new music, movies and games; writing emails, essays and scientific papers; and recording videos for family, friends, students, and the public," Hatcher said. "I would maintain contact with Earth on a daily basis for the sake of sanity, novelty, and continued participation in society."

Cumming told me that once the pod village is established and pressurized, they'll be able to wear normal clothing again. "I'm thinking Lululemon pants might be just what the doctor ordered," she joked, and described a daily routine of "growing and harvesting our own food in the hydroponic garden, eating, showering when possible, relaxing at night with a good Earth movie."

I asked candidates what they envision their lives will be like when they're 60. Schroder said he'll be "watching over the colony itself, telling the kids how everything has been developed, teaching the new Martians, swimming in the pool, taking a walk to the next village to visit Elon Musk and drinking a cup of tea."

"We'd have a small village with a wider range of expertise, and years of practical experience living on Mars," Patil said, though, he pointed out that at 43, his 60th birthday would occur after seven years on Mars. "Hopefully that would mean some kinds of domestic industry, like production of plant-based waxes and plastics that we could use to seal our homemade habitats and continue to expand the settlement. Those first trees might be just starting to bear fruit, so I'll go ahead and imagine putting 60 candles in the first apple pie ever baked on Mars."

I asked Patil what he's going to do when he arrives on Mars. "After 7-8 months living in extremely cramped quarters in the transit vehicle, I'll probably be overwhelmed by open space and the thrill of being under a sky again," he said. "Once I get to the base, I'll just be happy to be home."