Adriana Marais, a South African theoretical physicist is among a group of 100 people in line to be selected to embark on a one-way trip to Mars known as the Mars One. In this interview with NAZA OKOLI and other journalists, Dr Marais, who is currently doing a research in the field of quantum biology, speaks of her passion and determination to relocate to the Red Planet.
SASTA Congress 2016 was opened withan “out of this world” address from the guest speaker Dr Adriana Marais. Adriana has stirred much interest in her bid to be selected for the Mars One mission, which will establish the first human colony on Mars in 2025.
At the 2016 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, Mars hosted a Science Breakfast for 100 of the scientists attending the conference to ask, ‘Why does soft matter matter?’ Adriana Marais joined the panel discussion to offer her views on soft matter, scientific exploration and the origins of life. She is a postdoctoral researcher in quantum biology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, in Durban, South Africa and one of the 100 finalists in Mars One’s Project Astronaut who could be flying to Mars in 2026.
Cape Town – Right now there are people having sleepless nights contemplating a move to another city for a job or to be closer to family. But for Dr Adriana Marais, such a potential move is literally light years away – to another planet, to be exact. You see, Adriana is on a mission to be among the first people to settle on Mars. In 2013, she applied to be a candidate astronaut on the privately funded Mars One project. She is now one of 100 selected candidates around the world. This number is expected to be narrowed down to 24 by next year. The 24 will be sent to Mars, four at a time in six groups after a decade of training. The date for launch is 2026. They won’t be returning home. It’s a one-way ticket.
24 women and men, as part of the Mars One project, will soon be selected from the current shortlist of 100 candidates to begin training full-time for a one-way mission to Mars. Set for 2026, South Africa’s Adriana Marais, who made it through the third round of the selection process, is eager to pack her bags for the Red Planet. We interviewed Marais to find out why she’s so keen to take on this mission, and what she hopes to achieve for future generations.
The opportunity to settle on Mars is simply too good to pass up for Dr. Adriana Marais, one of five South African finalists in the Mars One initiative.
The programme hopes to recruit several people on a one-way trip to the Red Planet, although there are several significant challenges that still stand in its way by most accounts. But if anything, Marais has some impressive qualifications, with an extensive background in quantum biology, for one. The Mars One finalist was on-hand to talk about the opportunity and more at a Heavy Chef event in Cape Town on Wednesday night. What did we learn from the talk then?