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Every rock that you pick up you are the first

human ever to pick up that rock you're the first one to turn it around to look under

the rock and you just never know what you're

going to find five cargo missions, two life support units, two living units and another

supply unit and finally in 2022 the humans

will leave earth arriving on mars april 2023.

I think it's important that I don't lose my

dream or my title and that I will be able to

be a part of the ecosystem. I've always always wanted to go to space.

If you can make one billion per week just by

having a large audience in the entire world

then suddenly six billion doesn't sound like

so much money anymore. There is nothing that

would make me want to pass up this opportunity.

We have received more than 10,000 emails from

all over the world. They know that it's going

to be a mission of permanent settlement a

one-way mission.

I think that's it.

In 2023 four astronauts will land on mars to

settle a colony. Two years later four more will follow.

In the years after that at least 40 astronauts will be living on mars none

of them will ever return to earth.

Eventually they will die there some 33 million miles from home.

The concept sounds bizarre scientists are divided about the feasibility but some

are clear about their desire. Oh absolutely

yes I mean if I was given the opportunity of

going to mars I would go I wouldn't hesitate

for a second and the opportunity to see an

entirely different planet from the earth would

be just amazing it would be the absolutely

most amazing thing that one could consider doing it would be incredible. What would be

the consequences of such an operation legally for example?

We don't quite yet have the understanding

to work out what law would apply for example

on mars itself we need to try to work that

out what law would apply and what laws would

apply between these people the technology

moves very quickly the problem is the law doesn't

keep up the law is always struggling behind

and sometimes you have to sit back and think

well what are the legal issues here and how

do we regulate it and that becomes an interesting

challenge and therefore that's something that

I'm very interested in. Mars One has many followers

aspiring astronauts who claim to be willing

to give up everything on earth for the ultimate adventure.

Humans going to mars and not just visiting but establishing a settlement on

mars is it's huge it's mind-bogglingly huge.

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That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

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It's January 31, 2013.

Bas Lantzdorp, the founder of Mars One, writes this email.

"Mars One would like to receive feedback from

those of you who are considering to apply.

We are most interested to hear why you would like to go to Mars.

" He adds all the visitors from the Mars One website and hits the Send button.

Then it all starts.

Mails start streaming in.

And we started getting replies.

And in the beginning, we got more than five, six emails per minute.

Many people claim to have a deeply rooted desire to go to Mars.

Many say they want to help mankind move on.

From the US, from Russia, from Brazil, from Iran, from Egypt,

from Japan, from China, literally from all over the world.

Well, we even get applications from Syria.

That's, of course, bizarre with the situation that's going on in the country.

But even there, people have heard about this plan

and find it so motivating that they

send us an email to tell us that they want to go to Mars.

Within weeks, the counter passes 10,000--

10,000 people that seem to be determined to give up everything on Earth to go to Mars

and eventually die there, 33 million miles from home.

Together with a group of co-founders, Landstorp travels

through America to select equipment for the mission.

The leading companies in the commercial space

industry are based in California and Arizona.

The budget for the mission is estimated at $6 billion.

After we start the astronaut selection procedure,

amounts of applicants will convince quite a few

broadcasters to contact us about broadcasting the selection procedure in 2014.

And we're hoping that between 10 and 20 broadcasters will pick it up initially.

That would really be a good success.

After that, they will air more frequently as the launch date approaches.

As far as Mars One is concerned, this has to be the biggest media spectacle ever.

Landstorp is in the US to speak with his suppliers--

which rocket, which suits, what kind of habitat, and so on.

He is shopping for a mission which, if it is

executed, will turn the world upside down.

Journalists call him around the clock.

Actually, I wanted to go myself when I came up with this idea.

And the only reason that I'm not going

is that I don't have exactly the right personality.

You need a very calm person, a very patient person.

And I am more the enthusiastic entrepreneur who's not patient at all.

That's why I get things done.

Bas Landstorp, 35, has a background in mechanical engineering.

He's extremely motivated.

And he's prepared to make big sacrifices.

As far as he's concerned, he has to succeed.

For thousands of years, people have looked at the sky.

And they've seen Mars in the sky.

It has been a god.

It has been an omen for good fortune or bad fortune.

And we, at this moment, live in a time where we can actually go to this place.

And we are already there with rovers.

But we can actually go there now.

Humans can go there and explore the place that has been

in the imagination of humans for more than 1,000 years.

That's going to be really inspiring.

NASA also examines the possibility of a mission to Mars with one key difference.

In their concept, astronauts are expected to return safely back to Earth.

To ensure this, a second rocket needs to be constructed

and launched from Mars itself for the return trip.

This is technically almost impossible and extremely costly.

The reason that we've not gone to Mars yet is that space agencies are unwilling to do

this in a one-way mission, so in a permanent settlement mission.

And if you don't accept that humans will stay on Mars,

then at the moment it's simply impossible with existing technology.

So Landstorp has omitted this component from his plan.

In his concept, the astronauts won't return after landing,

but stay on Mars to begin a human settlement.

The technology for this already exists.

Landstorp plan is easier to execute, but much more controversial.

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Stefan Guenther is 44.

He's from a town close to Berlin.

Stefan is a pilot and developed software for the aerospace industry.

He works in Berlin, Benidorm, and Florida.

He has always dreamt of being an astronaut.

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Stefan has a wife and three children.

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Beatrice Rorice is 21.

She lives in Rio de Janeiro, and she is studying anthropology.

Already she is prepared to adapt her life to her future on Mars.

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Her parents want to support their daughter, but her mother is devastated by the idea.

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Henri Jacquemine is 32.

He is originally Congolese, but lives in Brussels.

Henri has two children, a two-year-old and a five-year-old.

They are so young that he hasn't told them about his plans.

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Many astronauts make the comparison to explorers from ancient times.

Back then, they argue, uncertainty also played a key role in the mission.

Henri visits the Euro Space Center in the south of Belgium.

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Sara, director, is 24.

She is from Philadelphia.

Being an astronaut was actually the first

thing I ever wanted to be when I was like four.

And there have been all these times in my life where it sort of looked not possible.

I mean, it's really hard to be an astronaut just because there are so few of them.

So it sort of became one of those things that's always

been in the back of my mind, where if I ever had the chance

to be an astronaut, I would drop everything and do it.

The chance never came up until now.

And now maybe there is a chance.

Maybe there isn't.

But I have to try.

Sara has two passions, art and science.

She has a degree in biology.

The one who pointed out the project to her was her father.

We've always encouraged Sara to make choices, to think about why and how.

So maybe it's not going to happen in 10 years.

Everything gets delayed.

10 years is a very aggressive time frame to do it.

But if it happens in 15 years, if it takes 20

years, it's still, in my eyes, it's a great idea.

And it's the right way to approach it.

Instead of making a job unnecessarily difficult--

in this case, the traditional approach is send somebody out, bring them back--

let's think of something that's a little different outside the usual constraints.

My mom has a friend who she works with.

She's been telling everyone about my hopes to go to Mars someday.

And so this friend of hers, he collects shards of meteorites.

And he had one that presumably fell from Mars.

I guess they analyzed the chemical composition.

I'm not totally sure how they deal with recovered meteorites.

So he had one from Mars, and he gave it to me.

So the joke is that someday, if I ever end up going to Mars,

I will bring it with me and return it to its home, this little tiny shard.

So that would be one thing I'd bring.

And other than that, probably I'd definitely have to bring a scrapbook.

My favorite photos of the people I'd be saying goodbye to.

Other than that, I really can't think of much.

Maybe some childhood mementos or something.

But I feel like the difference between living here

and living in a habitat on Mars is so enormous.

And you can't really disguise that difference by bringing stuff.

So I don't think any amount of stuff from Earth

could make Mars feel like home, as though it was your home.

The point is you need to make it your home, your new home.

So I probably wouldn't bring a whole lot with me, I don't think.

If you would have had the chance when you were-- if you were 18 now, you would just--

No question in my mind.

I'd be first in line.

Mars and the Earth orbit the sun at different

speeds, illustrated in the schematic chart.

The journey to Mars can only be made once every 26 months

when the Earth and Mars are closest together, the so-called launch window.

At that moment, the distance will be around 56 million

kilometers, or a bit more than 33 million miles.

After that, it will be another 26 months

before the next opportunity to travel from Earth to Mars.

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Lonstorp and his team are visiting Paragon.

Paragon manufactures space suits and life support systems for crew capsules.

Confronted with the approach of Mars One,

they will have to develop a new suit adapted to the Martian environment.

For this mission in particular, because it's a one-way

trip, and they're going to go down, and they're

going to stay and build upon the initial missions,

you have to design a suit system that's very robust

and reliable, a suit that can be maintained in the field by the people using it.

And that's very different than suit systems to date.

The suits that people are aware of when

you see the astronauts at the International Space Station,

they're very much resupplied and refurbished

by being-- because it's so close to the Earth,

they're able to resupply and refurbish, bring them back down for refurbishment.

When the shuttle was still flying, they could do that.

So these suits are very different.

They're going to go one-way trip, just like the astronauts.

And they have to be able to be maintained by those folks.

This means the suits need to be designed in such a way

that the astronauts can maintain them on their own.

So the challenges there are it starts

with the design of the suit and the major components and subsystems that go into it.

You have to design for commonality amongst parts.

It sounds trivial, but if you use 10 different types

of fasteners to hold things together, that's then a set

of 10 different spare parts you've had to effect repairs.

And instead, if you can get by, say, one

fastener type, you've reduced your parts count.

So it's a pronounced challenge that anyone needs to recognize who to take on.

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The concept is that the astronauts

will grow their own food to become self-sustainable.

This has been done before here at Biosphere 2 in Arizona.

This is the largest enclosed ecosystem in the world, like a large greenhouse.

Not for profit, but for research purposes.

13 square kilometers of desert, ocean, mangroves, a savanna, and even a jungle.

Taber McCallum is one of the founders.

Together with seven other scientists, he has spent two

years in complete isolation inside the Biosphere 2.

Living with a small crew in an isolated environment

isn't something that I think we're naturally wired to do,

at least not in Western cultures.

Some Eastern cultures, I think, are more apt at that.

So it's something that the crew has to learn how to do.

It's a personal issue.

It's your own personal psychology and demons

that find their way to the surface over time.

It's sort of like a monastic experience.

People go into monasteries.

The goal, to find out if people can

survive in an enclosed ecosystem on another planet.

Well, you need a very redundant, very reliable life support

system, because going to Mars, there's no turning back.

And so reliability is probably one of the major issues

that hasn't really yet been fully demonstrated.

Many aspects of going to Mars have

been demonstrated, like the navigation and the spacecraft.

But the life support system is still something we have to work on.

So this is all basically new technology.

The technologies aren't new.

They just haven't been made reliable.

And for the kinds of durations we're

talking about, keeping somebody alive for the rest of their life is a real challenge.

The air eventually will be from plants, just like on Earth.

In the beginning, we'll use physical chemical methods

to regenerate the air, ones that are easy to send

to Mars while we burrow out the rest of the colony.

This could grow and take up excess CO2 or give up CO2.

Growing food on Mars, for example, means you need energy.

But you also need the pressurized volume to grow the food in.

So you want plants that are very efficient at using the energy.

But you also want plants that can produce a lot

of food for a very small volume, because making

those pressurized environments is in itself very difficult to do.

It took us, for example, four months to make a pizza.

We had goats in the biosphere.

So they gave us milk.

We would plant the wheat, and grow the wheat,

and harvest the wheat, and turn that into dough,

and then put cheese on the pizza.

But it took a long time to make it.

The first Martian pizza is going to be cool.

Do you think it's going to be a pepperoni?

Well, getting the pork for pepperoni may take a while.

But a nice cheese pizza with mushrooms is probably going to be the first one.

Independent, intelligent, a team player who is employable

anywhere, mentally strong, and works well in isolation.

Those are the most important qualifications

for which the aspiring astronauts will be selected.

Norbert Kraft is a physician responsible for

rolling out the medical program for Mars One.

Altogether, the training will take eight years.

The key part of the training is the practical part,

where astronauts are locked up in a closed environment for several months in a row.

After they are selected, we will put them into habitats

which, as close as possible, simulate the Mars habitats.

And that they have to experience by themselves.

And they really know if they can endure it or not.

Because if you don't experience by yourself, how do you know?

You can say, yes, ahead of time, I can.

And then you are inside.

And you say, no, I can't anymore.

Four candidates will be selected for the first tour to Mars.

The success of the entire project will depend on these four individuals.

That is why Kraft needs to know everything about them.

We have to train them and observe them

for at least five to 10 years, really, to

work with them and see who are the best ones.

To survive on their own, the astronauts will have to

learn quite a few new skills, according to Mars One.

Physical and electrical repairs to the settlement

structures, cultivating crops in confined spaces,

and addressing both routine and serious medical issues,

such as dental upkeep, muscle tears, and bone fractures.

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The soil on the island of Lanzarote, off the coast of

Africa, is in many regards similar to that on Mars.

Professor Ian Crawford and Professor Hilary

Downs, both planetary scientists, are here

on a field trip with their students to study the soil.

A mission to Mars has many risks.

If threats like radiation, weightlessness,

and toxic dust can be overcome, the scientists believe it can succeed.

But are the risks the astronauts are taking acceptable?

There is radiation.

There is a possibility of inhaling chemical dust.

We would consider those risks, and we

would find a way to reduce the risk as much as possible.

But you cannot reduce risk completely.

One of the biggest risks on Mars are the so-called solar flares.

From time to time, the sun ejects massive doses

of radiation in the form of gigantic flares.

Because of the thin atmosphere surrounding Mars,

humans would not be able to survive this

radiation, unless there is sufficient protection.

Professor Ian Crawford says that lava tubes can offer this protection.

Pictures taken on Mars show that there are many lava tubes.

We're in the Monte Corona lava tube on Lanzarote,

and this is one of the world's largest preserved lava tubes.

Lava tubes form by lava flowing downhill from a volcano behind us.

And then the lava flow has cooled at its surface and developed a sort of crust.

And then the lava has continued flowing under this crust.

And gradually, the crust has got thicker, and other lava flows have gone on top.

And then the lava inside has drained away, leaving this long lava tube.

It's essentially a long cave underground.

Lava tubes are potentially very valuable for astronauts,

because the astronauts inside would be protected from the surface environment.

And in particular, they'd be protected

from cosmic rays and from radiation from the sun, solar flare events.

Cosmic rays and solar flares only penetrate a meter or so of solid rock.

So down here in a lava tube, where

we've got several meters of solid rock above us,

we would be protected from the radiation environment outside.

Also, the thermal environment is much more stable.

So instead of having big extremes of temperature

between day and night, down in a lava tube, the temperature will be constant.

And that's also easier from an engineering point of view,

because you don't have to worry about materials

expanding and contracting every day as the temperature changes.

Setting up a habitat in a lava tube

would offer protection against those external hazards.

But in addition to all of that, certainly on Mars,

if the aim is to search for life on Mars, then we

already know the surface of Mars is very hostile to life.

But we know these lava tubes exist.

And inside a lava tube, their conditions

are much less extreme.

So for exactly the same reason that humans

might want to establish a base in a lava tube,

any life on Mars near the surface of Mars

may have migrated into lava tubes to seek protection

from the external environment.

So in the context, not only would lava tubes

be great places to set up a base or a colony, they'd

also be very important places to explore scientifically.

If you're looking for evidence of life on Mars,

then lava tubes are a better prospect than the red, dusty soil

that we see at the surface.

If I can be someone who is really into the science

part, but also is good at the more human aspects

that people will need to not go crazy on Mars,

maybe I'll make the first cave paintings in our habitat on Mars.

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But what if he regrets this later, alone on Mars?

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Even though Crawford and Downs think that a time frame of 10 years is too optimistic,

they believe in the principles of projects like Mars One.

Governments face too many moral and political limitations.

When the Americans sent the Apollo astronauts

to the moon in the late 1960s and early

1970s, when that project was-- when it ceased,

when the funding was pulled from the Apollo project,

I don't think anybody at that time thought that no other

person would ever walk on the moon for the next 40 years.

And so far, no person has been back to the moon.

And that's what happens.

You're at the mercy of budget cuts.

You're at the mercy of a new government coming in

and saying, oh, well, it's much more important to do something else.

And so it's a private company with one or two

driven individuals who are determined to do this.

That actually might work far better than a government-funded agency.

But the consequences are almost incalculable.

Mars One has chosen for a one-way mission for technical and business reasons.

That the astronauts will live on Mars is a collateral result of this.

But this is what changes the perspective entirely.

Imagine that the plan is actually executed maybe in 20 years instead of 10.

A new community will be created on Mars.

What are the ethical considerations of this?

What are the legal considerations?

What law is applicable in space?

Steven Freeland from the University of Western Sydney is a specialist in space law.

If this goes ahead, we're looking at the beginnings of what you might

think of as a colonization of a part of outer space.

Now, obviously in a very small way and obviously a long way

away, but one of the fundamental principles about space is--

and this is really important because even when the United

States and the Soviet Union were at the height of the Cold

War when the space race began, and they were certainly

looking at each other as belligerents, they both recognized

almost straightaway that neither of them could own space.

Neither of them could colonize space.

And indeed, the treaties make that clear.

And the reason we have that idea that nobody can

colonize space is that it's a protection for us.

It's a safety valve to ensure that we don't

start having wars about resources in space.

So fundamental rule, space in a sense belongs to everybody.

No one country, no individuals can appropriate it for themselves.

OK, now we're talking about settlements in space.

We're talking about people taking a part of land, if that's the right expression.

We're talking about people living off that land,

so exploiting, let's say, if there are any water

resources or whatever.

We're beginning to talk about notions of colonization.

I understand in a very small way at the beginning.

But this sort of experiment is a precursor for other sorts of things, no doubt.

You know, if this works, then others

would be looking at doing things maybe on the

moon, maybe in other parts of outer space.

As we do different things in space, we begin to challenge

more and more some of the fundamental rules that

have been extremely important in the way we've regulated space.

Now, of course, law changes.

Law changes in a whole range of ways, not just with space,

but in every area of international law that I deal with, the law changes.

And so maybe the law needs to change here.

All I'm saying is before we change

some of these fundamental rules that have served us very well,

we have to be absolutely clear that we understand

why we're doing it and what the consequences and the possible risks are.

We need to try to work out what law applies to these people.

What are the legal rules?

What is their legal status?

At the moment, under the legal framework,

we can work out what law applies while they're in the vehicle.

That will depend on essentially which country has registered the vehicle.

So we know, let's say the vehicle is registered by the United States.

There's a UN system of registration.

Then, by and large, US law would apply

whilst they're in the space vehicle on their way to Mars.

But the registration system doesn't yet

provide for what law is to apply once they reach Mars.

So we need to work out that law.

And if these people are going to be there forever, presumably they may get married.

They may have children.

They may kill each other.

We need to understand a framework for law.

And we need to set that out.

At some point, it's important for us to work out,

well, maybe we need to create new laws to deal with that specifically.

Because the local circumstances on Mars

may mean that you need a different type of law.

It's a really complex issue.

It's philosophical.

If you're creating a legal system for a new sort of environment,

you have the opportunity, but also the responsibility, to work out what makes sense.

How do we allow this to develop?

I'm really interested in society,

so that we can learn more about the constitution of society.

And to be able to accompany the creation of my society

from the beginning has been the final of my life.

To be able to accompany it here and at all times.

That's also my passion, and that's my mission.

All of the things that we just have to do all the time.

Where even complaining about the government, as everyone inevitably does.

If I got picked to go on this project,

I would be part of establishing a new government.

I guess having it sink in that there are so many things that

just won't apply to me anymore, I think it would probably be bittersweet.

Because there are a lot of things that I'd miss,

but there are a lot of things that I really

won't miss at all.

Everybody gets to choose how to spend their lives.

Or at least everybody should be so lucky to choose how to spend their lives.

Most people-- look, most of us are on plan B.

We start out with plans.

We do something.

But life gets in the way.

And things happen, and we cope with that.

And that's how we wind up on whatever path we wind up on in life.

So to be able to actually make a choice about

your path in life, that's a wonderful thing.

We should all be able to do that.

I'm hoping that she really can make that choice.

Emily, if it actually came to that and she said,

I actually have this opportunity, and it's me,

or it's somebody else, but I've been offered, go for it.

Go for it.

She would be achieving something that I only dreamed of.

Whatever one may think about the Mars One plan,

it can't be denied that it has inspired many people around the world.

The sheer number of applicants is phenomenal.

We received more than 78,000 applications.

So that's really amazing.

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Given the choice, I would die on Mars,

because I would have had one of the most incredible experiences of any scientist.

It's just unbelievable the thought that you could go and work on Mars,

and if you didn't come back, well, that's the way it is.

That's life.

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