When American astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon in 1969 and called it “one giant leap for mankind”, who knew we would talk about inhabiting Mars half a century later?  South African Adriana Marais, a theoretical physicist and member of the Quantum Research Group at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, is one of 100 short-listed as part of the Mars One project, to set foot on Mars in 2025. She hopes to be a part of a permanent human settlement on the planet; man’s first step to becoming a multi-planetary species.
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<h4>What comes to mind when you hear the words ‘outer space’?</h4>
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I think of my ancestors, French Huguenots, who traveled for months by ship under perilous conditions to arrive as peasant farmers at the new Dutch settlement at the Cape of Good Hope. I think of the first Europeans who settled in northern America. I think of the first African explorers who ventured north on foot and discovered Europe. This is what we have always done as humans, we observe, we dream, and we realize those dreams through our innate urge to explore and our ability to shape our environment to our purpose. Settling on Mars and extending our transportation systems to outer space will be unique only in that the distance is further than ever before. Quite a bit further.
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<h4>If you were reborn, what would you choose to be?</h4>
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As a child, I read a lot and dreamed of being an Egyptian queen, a Greek philosopher or a Viking warrior. However, I am now utterly convinced that we are witnessing a most unique era in the four billion years that life has been evolving on Earth. Unprecedented developments in science and technology have brought the expansion of our imaginations and our world further than ever before within reach… And I would not choose to be reborn as anyone or anything other than myself!
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<h4>What is the most beautiful thing you have seen?</h4>
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I feel grateful that my volunteering to establish the first human settlement on Mars has made me appreciate the beauty in everything I see around me, even more than before. The ‘busy-ness’ of Earth is unique and beautiful, the only planet we know of teeming with life, full of all the people we love who mean so much to us, all the animals we share our habitat with, all the plants with which we have been living side-by-side with for so many eras… the smell of the air through the changing seasons, the feeling of the wind, sea and sun on skin, the feeling of the ground beneath bare feet.
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<h4>If women were allowed to run half the companies and countries in the world, what change would there be?</h4>
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A range of studies show that team diversity is often correlated with better performance. The gravity and extent of the global challenges we face today will only be solved through the collaborative efforts of all human inhabitants of this planet.
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<h4>What is your most valuable possession?</h4>
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I place extreme value in a good night’s sleep! There will be strict weight limitations for early settlers on Mars. I am prepared to leave all of my material possessions behind. All I will take is information: the electronically-stored pixels, musical notes and words that constitute all of my books, music, photos, movies, writing, emails and letters; my bits of memories of Earth.
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<h4>If you had 10 minutes to change the world, what would you do?</h4>
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I think the days of our current economic model are numbered, but I don’t think hacking into and destroying all financial systems, even if it could be done in 10 minutes, would be the solution. I don’t believe any meaningful and productive change can be made in 10 minutes. You would be lucky to see some meaningful change in your lifetime.
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<h4>Success is…?</h4>
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I want the ideas I had to outlive the memory of me. If I can encourage people to be proudly human, to question and to dream, then my job here on Earth or beyond will be done.

Adriana-page

To Mars On A One-Way Ticket

As a child, Adriana Marais always wanted to live on another planet. Today, the 31-year-old scientist born in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, is almost half-way to realizing that dream.
Marais is one of 100 hopefuls from around the world and one of seven from Africa to have cleared the third round of the Mars One project for its maiden trip to Mars. Mars One is a not-for-profit foundation with the goal of establishing a permanent human settlement on Mars; crews are expected to depart for their one-way journey to the planet starting 2026.
It would seem Marais has been preparing for this moment all her life.
“When I was in standard seven, a friend and I did a project for a school science competition, and we built a paper mache city on Mars; we had the crops, we had the habitat, we had the lifestyle,” she says.
Marais, who has been a doctoral student (quantum biology) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, says she is taking the leap of faith for the sake of science, knowing she will never be able to return to planet earth once she makes the trip.
<div id="attachment_30163" style="width: 698px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-30163" class="wp-image-30163 size-large" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/A-Marais-688x1024.jpg" alt="" width="688" height="1024" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/A-Marais-688x1024.jpg 688w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/A-Marais-300x447.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/A-Marais-600x893.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/A-Marais-202x300.jpg 202w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/A-Marais-768x1143.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/A-Marais.jpg 687w" sizes="(max-width: 688px) 100vw, 688px" />Adriana Marais</div>
“I have become interested in how life emerged. This is a question that can most certainly be researched on Mars as well, because it has been indicated that it may have been possible for life to exist on Mars at some point.
“The surface of Mars on average is very cold at minus 55 degrees, the air is 96% carbon dioxide, so it is not breathable, and the pressure is very low. The air is very thin. And also the radiation from the sun is dangerous on the surface of Mars. A lot of [our] time on Mars will be spent indoors.”
For now, all the short-listed finalists have on paper are artists’ impressions of Mars’ habitat, and some idea of the life-changing expedition.
“But I imagine that there will be a lot of developments taking place from now until then. So I don’t think it’s possible to imagine what it will be like,” says Marais.
Her own work so far has not gone unrecognized; she has already been published in journals. In March, Marais won the L’Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science International Rising Talents Grants program award in Paris. She was one of 15 women globally to win.
Marais is confident it will be extremely fascinating traveling to Mars – and settling there.

Adriana Marais

From Africa To Mars

Hester Maria Mende has just arrived in Scotland after a three-month holiday crossing continents, cultures and time zones. She is yet to discard the boarding passes she has collected from Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney and Auckland on this recent trip. Call this retired 67-year-old former South African IT developer and opera singer a globetrotter, and she is not satisfied.
For Mende, the world is not enough.
Late December, Mende was basking on a sunny beach in Thailand when she received news of her clearing the first round of interviews for a one-way trip to Mars in 2025. Now, one of 1,058 chosen candidates, from a total of 200,000 from around the world, she will be in the final two rounds that will determine man’s foray on Mars soil.
She has no doubts she will make it.
“I believe myself to be the perfect candidate for the first mission because the people in my age group and my circumstances are the ideal cannon fodder,” Mende tells FORBES AFRICA.
“I absolutely want to go. To be on another planet, to be a part of that first step will be the ideal way of ending my life. We die anyway, so dying in the midst of this exhilarating endeavor will be fantastic for me.”
Early last year, Mende spent R300 ($27) to apply for the mission. She read that Mars One, a non-profit foundation, was seeking to establish human life on the red planet and she was immediately hooked.
“I have always been keen on science-fiction, but here was a chance to live my dream, experience space in my lifetime,” says Mende.
Probe her further and the real reasons emerge. Retirement and the death of a loved one.
“I lost my husband [in an armed robbery attack in Johannesburg] seven years ago, I have no children and although I have five siblings, I realized that post-retirement, you really need to find a support system of your own. I have led a full life. Nobody depends on me, nobody’s life will stop when I am gone.”
Mende confesses she withdrew from the world for several years after her husband’s demise. Signing up to be a part of the Mars mission added a new purpose to her life—and death.
At the moment, Mende is preparing body and mind for the next round of interviews due shortly. While the first round tested her mental strength, the next two levels will determine her physical agility to withstand the rigorous eight-year training that will ensue. If selected, she will be one of only 24 to 40 candidates training in teams of four. The team with the greatest chance of survival will be the first to undertake the seven-month journey—without a return ticket.
If Mende is one of them, she will be 78.
On the Mars One website, the project’s co-founder Bas Lansdorp describes the candidates as our first tangible glimpse into what the new human settlement will look like.
The website states public interest will help finance the project; the estimated cost of dispatching the first team is $6 billion.
Mende and her teammates have already been briefed about the drill.
“There will be ample work to accomplish for the first team,” she says.
Hydroponics—a method of growing plants in water rather than soil—will have to be established, the settlement will have to be maintained and new ways of survival devised.
Mende, who ended her career implementing IT projects for state-owned power utility Eskom in Johannesburg, says she has always walked off the beaten track.
“I always enjoyed being at the forefront of new disciplines. I started in IT when computers were not widely known, I started on project management when it was new,” she says.
Alongside a busy career, Mende, a trained classical singer, also sang on national radio, TV, and performed at operas across South Africa.
Singing is something she will miss on the red planet as the atmosphere is not conducive for sound.
And what if she does not qualify?
“I hope with every fiber in my body that I will. I am trying not to be fixated, but I believe my sense of humor will get me up there.”

Tag: Mars

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