Meet Some Australian Mars One Candidates

HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT MARS ONE — the ambitious project that is under way to send the first humans to Mars? The plan is to send 4 people (2 women and 2 men) in 2024 — and it’s one way! They won’t be coming back. They will be Martians.

Some 200,000 people from all over the world applied for the chance to be one of the first humans on Mars. That number has been narrowed down to about 750, including some 25 Australians. Eventually the number ill be reduced to a total of 24. These candidates will undergo many years of extensive training and eventually 4 will be chosen by a TV audience as part of a reality style TV show to be the first to go.

So, what kind of people are these Australians? What would you ask them if you had the chance? What makes them want to go to Mars and give up life on Earth? What about their families and friends? Why do they think they should be chosen? What training will they need? How will they survive and cope in the tiny habitation modules? What if something goes wrong? What characteristics would they look for in team-mates? How is all of this affecting their daily life now?

This video conference gives students the opportunity to meet and ask questions of a number of these ordinary (or, some might say, extraordinary) Australians who have made it to the second round of the Mars One selection process.

Australian NASA scientist Dr Abigail Allwood is now one of 7 principal science investigators in NASA’s next mission to the red planet … the 2020 Mars mission. Abby is the first woman and first Australian to be given the prestigious role.

Abby is a field geologist with a strong interest in the oldest record of life on Earth. Eight years ago while doing her PhD at Sydney’s Macquarie University she proved that billion-year-old stromatolites (layered rock formations made by tiny microbes) in the Pilbara region (of WA) held records of Earth’s oldest microbial life forms. Abby thinks that the patterns of microbial life in the Pilbara could also have happened on Mars. Abby designed a new technology known as PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry) which analyses very small, grain-sized portions of rocks to look for traces of organic material. She is now the Principal Investigator for PIXL which will be mounted on the robotic arm of the next Mars Rover in 2020 to examine the rocks on Mars and look evidence of early microbial life forms like the ones found in the Pilbara.

Abby will join us live from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California to chat with young people and share her inspirational story as a young Australian who dreamt of working for NASA, the path that lead her to her incredible career and her exciting work on NASA’s upcoming Mars 2020 mission. This is a unique opportunity for your students to ask questions and discuss ideas with
a home-grown NASA scientist.