The Mars 100 - this is a group of 100 people who successfully passed the tests to be the first people to go to Mars on a privately-financed mission. It is targeted for around 2031. The plan isn't to return, but to settle there. Yes, this is a one-way journey.
The story began a few years ago. The project was started in 2011 by Bas Lansdorp and Arno Wielders. The intent is to establish a permanent human settlement on Mars. Several unmanned missions will be completed, establishing a habitable settlement before carefully selected and trained crews will depart to Mars. There is a roadmap overview of the steps to get there.
In 2013 they started the Astronaut Selection Program. Our speaker Karen Cumming was one of the 100 people selected - 50 men and 50 women. She was a Hamilton Spectator reporter and is currently an author and speaker.
She qualified in the third round of screening. There is one more Round of qualification and then training begins. There will be unmanned flights with supplies and infrastructure. Then the flight of humans to Mars is targeted for 2031.
All sorts of things go into the project and it sparks one's imagination about how things would be done and how people would function there. You can find out all kinds of things at the website HERE. with the tag line The next giant leap starts right here on earth.
Our picture today was done with one of those filters that bends the image - I started with a music graphic made in photoshop.
