Raine Light, Aspiring Martian

“But it wasn’t so much on a whim as it was a spontaneous ‘Holy cow… I want to be a part of this.’”

Her application process, following a $33 fee, included about five pages of essay questions about her past, different situations that she has found herself in, and her reasons for applying to the program. Light also shot a one-minute video describing her candidacy, which is the only part of her application that can be seen on the Mars One website.

It took Light about a day and a half to complete her submission, a length that she blames on her own perfectionism. She rewrote her answers more than once before submission. This meticulous enthusiasm is what Light thinks will help her to stand out from the thousands of other Mars One applicants. “I don’t know if I am any more of a good candidate than anyone else. But I would be giving it 110 per cent,” she affirms.

This extra 10 per cent of effort can already be seen on Light’s WordPress blog, “Going to Mars,” which she started when she first found out about Mars One. Since the blog’s start in mid-April, Light has been recording her reflections on Mars, while also posting links to relevant articles and websites.

Mars One’s widely circulated introduction video, “Mars 2023: Inhabitants Wanted,” was her fourth post.

It calls for people of all nationalities to apply for the one-way trip to Mars, set to take place in 2023. No scientific background is required for candidacy, simply good health, psychological stability, and the capacity for self-reflection, among other qualities, says the Mars One website.

Of the hundreds of thousands of applicants, some will be invited to meet with a Mars One committee to conduct an interview. The selection process after that will be centered on the basis of reality TV.

Those with successful interviews, about 20 to 40 people in every country, will participate in a series of challenges testing their abilities, which will be broadcast internationally, allowing the audience to select one winner per country. Mars One will also select its own winners to continue with the selection process.

The next stage sees participants showing their capacity to live in the harsh environment of Mars and to work under different likely circumstances. A replica of the Mars settlement will be built on earth, where once again, television crews will be broadcasting the events internationally.

In the end, six groups of four will be selected to train for a one-way trip to Mars, and four people will take the first trip, with two to follow every two years.

“The problem that I see with [this process] and reality TV is that it has a very short nature,” says Light. “People’s attention spans will be short; they’ll like a show for a couple seasons but then something bigger, more interesting comes along.”

Nevertheless, the fact that the entire world is watching is one of the reasons that Mars One expects its endeavour to be a success. “The Mars One project is idealistically set on colonization,” explains Light. Mars One’s website says that the organization’s goal is to “unite humanity” in exploration, similar to the effect that Apollo 11 had in 1969.

Light, who is currently studying to become a paramedic and working as a first aid and management operative in a construction site, is 29 this year. If she’s accepted as a Mars One participant, the required 10 years of training for the program will make her 39 by the time she takes the expected seven-month one-way trip to the red planet.

And Light says she cannot imagine anything changing her mind during those years.