‘Dream big, reach for the stars’
Credit: Originally published by IOL | 12 June 2015. Durban – Mars One candidate, Dr Adriana Marais of Pietermaritzburg, said it was surprising that people found the idea of permanently settling on Mars crazy. Marais was in Durban on Thursday she spoke to staff...
Is there life on Mars?
While most of us Garden Route Earthlings will be going about our business on a fine autumn day, Adriana Marais – firstborn of Plettenberg Bay CBD dwellers Marie-Anna and Theo Marais – might well be wandering down the Champs-Elysees in Paris, France, with a particular spring in her step.
The evening of 18 March, Adriana Marais will be the only South African sharing the stage with some of the sharpest ladies on the planet, as one of 15 recipients worldwide of a L’Oreal-Unesco International Rising Talent Grant for Women in Science. Last year Adriana, 31, was one of 200 Young South African achievers recognised by the Mail & Guardian. She says with a bright smile: “My research is what makes me get up in the morning.”
UKZN students make Mars One shortlist
The last time man set foot on another planet was during the Apollo 17 moon landing in 1972! Now, thanks to the Mars One project, people could be walking on Mars in 2024 for the first time… and two UKZN students may be among them!
Ms Adriana Marais, a PhD candidate at UKZN’s Centre for Quantum Technology, and Mr Divashen Govender, a BSc student studying Applied Mathematics and Physics, have both made it into the Mars One final 100 as a result of personal online interviews with Dr Norbert Kraft, the Chief Medical Officer of the mission.
5 South Africans through to round 3 of kamikaze Mars mission
Cape Town – Adriana Marais from KwaZulu-Natal, Divashen Govender from Durban, Kobus Vermeulen from Pretoria (pictured below) and two other candidates, only known as Edwin and Alexandra, are the five South Africans who are still in the running to go on a kamikaze-type mission to Planet Mars in 2024.
Meet the South Africans who hope to go to Mars
Five South Africans have made it on to the shortlist of 100 candidates being considered for the Mars One space programme. Initially, more than 200 500 people applied to be trained as astronauts to stay on Mars. Mars One aims to establish a permanent human settlement on the Red Planet. Funding for the project has come from crowd-sourcing, merchandise sales and TV rights.