Stories of life on other planets always seemed like a fantasy whose exploration was exclusive to blockbuster movies, never to be manifested in reality. However, recent technological advances and increased research projects have made it possible for us to finally imagine the prospect of colonizing another corner of space. The Mars One expedition, led by Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp, is a non-profit program committed to sending a group of people to Mars on a one-way trip to populate the planet.
The company claims that nearly 200,000 people from all walks of life applied to drop everything and travel to Mars, which has a very hostile environment. The individuals selected would have to live in a sort of “submarine-like pod,” according to our favorite source of science knowledge, Bill Nye.
Nye also explained that Mars has no consistent supply of liquid water and that there is no air, and anyone who left their individual pod would suffocate immediately. The trip doesn’t exactly sound like a vacation, and for the 100 finalists (50 men and 50 women) who are currently undergoing training, it would be an irreversible step with serious consequences.
While it doesn’t make sense to me why this trip has garnered so much public attention and admiration, the more concerning aspect is the billions of dollars going towards the venture. This money would undoubtedly be better used for our own planet — we should help make Earth more livable for its inhabitants before we rush off to explore and populate another realm. A project like Mars One just reinforces the fact that our world is more concerned with avoiding earth’s problems than treating and preventing them.
Currently 750 million people live without access to clean drinking water, and more than 840,000 people die from water-related disease. In addition, one in nine people on earth do not have enough daily food intake to lead a healthy life. We have ruined countless forests, deserts, oceans and wildlife habitats with our gross indifference to the responsibility we carry as active inhabitants of the earth. After depleting Earth’s resources with our selfishness and greed, ostracizing the majority of the world to overfeed the minority, it is simply not fair, feasible or moral to attempt to populate another planet when ours is in shambles.
The trip has many skeptics, and rightfully so. The Mars One team has tried to make the mission a reality TV show, oversell its possible success to the public, and although it will probably not go off without a hitch, the mindset behind the mission is most worrisome. When we siphon money to escape our world and create a new one, it shows just how deep our ignorance of finding viable solutions to our problems is. A one-way trip to Mars might be an out for a couple hundred of people, but for those who stay behind, blatant disregard won’t be an option for long.