Mars One, is the mission to send men and women on a one-way trip to the red planet in 2023. The intention is to establish a permanent settlement, and Claude Gauthier is hoping, and training, to be among them.
A professor in the Department of Math and Statistics at the University of Moncton in the Atlantic province of New Brunswick, Gauthier just made the first cut. He says he is “very happy to have been selected to this point”.
The $6-billion plan was initiated by Dutch entrepreneur Bas Landorp. It is funded by sponsors and private investors. Organizers of the endeavour began accepting online applications a year ago. Over 200,000 people from 140 countries applied.
8,243 people applied from Canada.
In December the field was narrowed to include only 1,058 people. Last week Professor Gauthier got the news that he made the next round. Now the 705 people remaining will be interviewed to establish the eventual crews.
The plan is to send the first four people on the seven-month journey, with additional crews joining them every two years. While some applicants describe it as the experience of a lifetime, that is literally what it will be, as there is no coming back.
Claude Gauthier says he has always been an adventurer and wanted to become an astronaut. In a few months Gauthier will face the next hurdle in the contest. A personal interview will take place to evaluate his knowledge, his personality, adaptability and intelligence.
The time and place for the interview has yet to be established, but in the meantime, Claude Gauthier is continuing his physical training by scuba diving and fencing, and for his intellectual workouts he delves into some computer science challenges.
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