One-way tickets to Mars: why two Chinese on final 100 shortlist want to go to the Red Planet
Two mainland Chinese shortlisted for mission to set up colony say dream is worth dying for
Two mainland Chinese shortlisted for one-way tickets to Mars say they are willing to die for the cause and are hoping to overcome objections from their families.
Lin Xiaoxia and Li Dapeng are among 100 candidates shortlisted for Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp’s Mars One project, which aims to send 24 people to set up a permanent colony on the Red Planet from 2024.
They made the shortlist last week after making statements of good health and participating in online interviews. They will now take part in group challenges before the final list is announced by the end of the year.
“It came as a total surprise, because the online interview did not go smoothly due to a bad connection,” Lin, 31, a sales coordinator for a garment business in Guangzhou, said in an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post. “I was so thrilled by the news I couldn’t fall asleep at night. I kept imagining the scene when I land on Mars.”
Astronomy lover Lin said she had been fascinated by the universe since she was a little girl.
“I think knowing more about the universe makes you more broad-minded, by realising how tiny and insignificant mankind and the earth are,” she said.
Lin faces opposition from her family, who fear they will not see her again as the venture does not provide a return trip. But she will not give up the opportunity if she is selected as one of the final 24.
“This is a very meaningful and great [venture]. It comes with a risk, but also with rewards,” she said.
“So many years have passed since we landed on the moon. I long to see mankind’s footprint on another planet, and I hope that person can be me,” she said.
Lin said she would research Mars and improve her fitness for the next round of selection.
The other mainlander, Li, is a 33-year-old father who has been in love with astronomy since his teenage years. He told the Post that the “possibility of completing the project is relatively low”, but this would not prevent him from taking part “whole-heartedly”.
Li, who has a six-year-old son and works as a forestry official in Hebei, is driven by his interest in science, nature and adventure. He said he would not go if he could not overcome his family’s objections.
The questions Li tackled on the online interview included: “Why do you want to go to Mars?” and “If you had the chance to go back to earth three years after landing, would you take it?”
Some sceptics have claimed the project is merely a money-making scheme – allegations the organisers deny.
The Mars One team has drawn up plans with Lockheed Martin to have a satellite in orbit around the planet by 2018, but the goal is ambitious. Mars is 225 million km from earth and its surface is inhospitable to life.
Li is unfazed. “Compared to the vast universe, human life is short and insignificant. Death is a certainty, a matter of sooner or later. For this, I think it is worth risking it,” he told a local website.
