Mission Possible?

South African in the Mars mix as race to the Red Planet heats up.

- Dylan Slater 

It is 2031 and the next space race has started with the launch of the largest-ever interplanetary space rocket and spaceship carrying four carefully selected astronauts on a mission to establish a human settlement on Mars – a planet that is about 225-million kilometres away.

Heading for the fourth rock from the sun, these first Martian astronauts will never return to earth: the Mars One mission is a one-way trip with no option of returning.

Mars One was founded in 2011 by Dutch entrepreneur and Mars One CEO Bas Lansdorp and Dutch scientist and Mars One CTO Arno Wielders as a privately funded one-way mission to Mars to establish a permanent human settlement on the planet. Although not officially labelled as such, the funding model is similar to a crowd-funding model, whereby the organisers depend on money from sponsors and donations.

In recent developments, Mars One Ventures is now listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and valued at almost $400-million.

Theoretical physicist and former University of KwaZulu-Natal Quantum Research Group postdoctoral researcher and current head of innovation in Africa at enterprise application software company SAP Adriana Marais applied for selection as a Mars One astronaut candidate when the international public entries first opened in 2013.

To date, Mars One candidates have gone through three rounds of selection, and Marais has progressed to the shortlist of the top 100.

Round four, set to start soon, will further shortlist the candidates to 24. Candidates will then be divided into six four-person teams, after which training will start.