A Hamilton adventure-seeker says she wants to join a mission to go to Mars because it would be “the assignment of a lifetime.”
But while lots of people might dream of visiting other planets, Karen Cumming may actually have a shot at going. The Hamiltonian recently made the list of top 100 finalists to be selected for the Mars One mission, a Dutch-based initiative to start a colony on the red planet.
Since the not-for-profit group put the word out that they were looking for volunteers several years ago, more than 200,000 people have applied to join. On Feb. 16, the group announced the list has been whittled down to the top 100 candidates and Cumming was among them.
“It resonated with me so deeply and so profoundly that as soon as I read about it I knew I had to apply,” Cumming told CP24 in an interview. “It spoke to my sense of adventure. I’m a very adventurous person. I’ve been to a lot of places on earth that a regular person would never want to go to.”
The longtime journalist made the third round cut of 50 men and 50 women after two rounds of interviews and said she would jump at the chance to get to report on the mission as an insider.
“It would be the assignment of a lifetime to be the person who has the privilege of documenting this story for everybody here on earth from the inside, to help people feel what it feels like to live on another planet,” Cumming said.
While Cumming and her fellow applicants are enthusiastic about the chance to go to another world, not everyone is as optimistic about the plan. A recent analysis of the Mars One project at MIT concluded that the explorers on the mission would not survive unless significant modifications were made.
Mars One has said they feel the analysis is wrong and Cumming said she trusts the group and the experts they’re putting in place.
However she said she’s not going into the venture with rose-coloured glasses either. An opportunity to meet astronaut Chris Hadfield last year left her with a piece of advice from the former space station commander to be “relentless” in her questioning when it comes to the hardware for the mission -- advice she says she’ll take seriously.
And should she make the final 24, she says she would still be able to back out at any time if she had doubts.
“If you decide to change your mind they have people who are ready at a moment’s notice to take your place,” she said.
For those who do make the final round, the plan is to have four astronauts blast off to Mars in 2024 and then have two more follow them every year for two years.
Adventure aside, if Cumming ends up being one of the people chosen to blast off into space, she acknowledged it would be tough to leave.
“We’re all human, the biggest thing you struggle with is leaving all your friends and family and all the things you’ve come to know,” she said.
However she likened it to European explorers who came with Christopher Columbus to North America in the 1400s.
“They were willing to take a big risk because they wanted to do what they could to advance the cause of humanity. And that’s what this is all about,” Cumming said.
That said, she admits it was a little tricky explaining to her 94-year-old mother what she wanted to do at first.
“She still thinks I’m a little bit nuts, but she’s developed a sense of humour about it and she’s able to take it in her stride,” Cumming said. “My brother and sister and their families – they think it’s amazing. My friends think it’s the wildest ride.”
According to Mars One, the next round of the contest will test people in groups to see how they interact.
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