The latest reality competition show is offering a prize that’s out of this world.
A trip to Mars.
The only catch? It’s a one-way ticket.
“Citizen Mars” (premiering Tuesday on AOL’s Engadget) centers on the nonprofit Mars One, which, two years ago, announced a controversial plan to send a manned mission to colonize the Red Planet by 2027. The foundation received 200,000 applications from around the world, which it whittled down to 100 finalists (50 men and 50 women) — five of whom are profiled in the Web series.
So what makes someone volunteer to embark on this potential suicide mission?
The series’ lone American candidate, 35-year-old Sue Ann Pien, a tech employee and avid rock climber from LA, credits a fearless sense of adventure and concern about our environment’s sustainability.
“From a very young age I looked around and said, ‘I want to make a difference,’ ” says Pien, whose parents worked in the aerospace industry. “Hundreds of years down the road we have to be a space-faring civilization. Mars One gives us the opportunity to do that.
“I have that drive for adventure and I know what the risks are — just like every time I go out to climb, I know what the risks are.”
Facing a possible end date of her time on Earth, Pien has already started checking off a travel bucket list — but the ticking timeline has also strained her relationship with her live-in girlfriend.
“[She] cried when she first found out. There’s plenty of times when she’s just like, ‘F— you, why am I even with you?’ We’re going to try and take it as present-day as possible and do these amazing things,” Pien says. “We’re actually living our lives as if there is a limited amount of time left. So in a weird way, it’s a blessing.”
Each brief (five- to nine-minute) “Citizen Mars” episode only introduces Pien and her four fellow candidates. The next step of the competition won’t begin until September 2016, where teamwork challenges, isolation-chamber living and extensive interviews will eventually produce 24 finalists to undergo 10 years of training. Mars One aims to launch its first four-person mission in 2026, with subsequent teams going up every two years, if successful.
To be sure, the plan has its skeptics. Many in the scientific community have questioned the mission’s feasibility (such experts appear in each episode). Mars One, however, claims it can accomplish colonization with existing technology — it just needs to raise a $6 billion budget (which it plans to finance by selling broadcast rights and sponsorships).
Pien, however, is confident she’ll realize her Martian dream.
“I’m nearly 100 percent certain that I’ll get to space in my lifetime and about 70 percent certain that I’ll get to be on Mars,” she says.
MEET THE CANDIDATES
Here’s a look at the four other Mars One finalists profiled in “Citizen Mars”
Life insurance salesman and professional basketball player from Cairo, Egypt
Medical school graduate and psychiatrist trainee from Trieste, Italy
Doctorate of quantum biology graduate from Cape Town, South Africa
Mechanical engineering student from Coimbatore, India