NEXT HOLIDAY ‘MARS’

As children when we were asked to write an essay on summer vacation, we often wrote about our holiday to Mumbai or Goa. Now we twitter about our holiday to Europe, Africa, but the latest holiday destination is to space- Mars is the next holiday destination which more and more are opting for.

Fifty years ago the first ‘moonwalkers’ were heralded as heroes. But in an age of space tourism the Moon became a more holiday destination than an unfathomable fantasy. Nowadays there are bigger fish to fry, one giant red one in particular, the Mars. 100,000+ people have applied for a one way trip to Mars, as part of the ambitious multibillion dollar the Mars One Project. The project aims to colonies the red planet Mars starting 2022.

What is the Mars One project? Mars One is an organisation that aims to establish the first human settlement on Mars by 2023. The non-profit organisation founded in the Netherlands plans to start populating Mars with humans by using an on-going global media event. From astronaut selection to training, from lift-off to landing, the NGO will provide primary funding to all enthusiasts. On the contrary, flying off to space will not be a cake-walk.

There are many parameters and conditions associated to this holiday. Few are obvious like; applicants must be intelligent, creative, psychologically stable and physically healthy. Apart from that they should submit a video on why they wanted to go to Mars and why they should be selected? This holiday requires quite a lot of homework. Landing a human on Mars and returning them back to Earth safely will probably be one of the biggest scientific achievements of the century. Solaris gave three different future holidays, all set in space. Why one way ticket? When do we come back? A word of caution is that once on Mars, there is no coming back.

‘There is no means to return to Earth. Mars is home,” is how they’ve worded that little nugget of info on the website. According to Mars One CEO and co-founder Bas Lansdorp, “ever since we started Mars One project back in 2011, we have received support all walks of life be it scientists, engineers, businessmen or an aerospace company. The project will maintain 40 trained astronauts during the full duration of its missions, who will be responsible for installing the connecting tubes between the individual ‘capsules’, for the ones on the earth.

How about a six wheel drive vehicle in the ultimate holiday destination? Whilst at the moment, the six-wheeler curiosity, currently exploring the surface of Mars, is controlled from Earth; the hope is that one day a similar vehicle will be driven across the surface of the red planet by humans. Mars One said, out of the applicants, it will select a multi-continental group of 40 astronauts this year. Of the selected, two men and two women - are set to leave for Mars in September 2022, landing in April 2023. It's not feasible to send water, oxygen and food from Earth to the habitants on mars. They will produce those on Mars. On Mars, water can be extracted from the soil.

Since Mars has gravity, water can be used in the same way as on Earth. Oxygen can be produced by splitting water into its constituent parts, hydrogen and oxygen. The second major component, nitrogen, will be extracted directly from the Martian atmosphere by the Life Support Unit. Food from Earth will only serve as an emergency ration.

People planning the holiday destination will eat fresh food that they produce on Mars which of course will take its time to grow. Whether you find it all little crazy, extremely exciting or slightly unnerving, the fact is that the idea of travel is slowly, or crazily, quickly bursting beyond the grasp of gravity.

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