The Mars Colony

NBC reported that the Mars One Foundation is considering 2782 people who’ve paid for registration to go on a one-way trip to colonize Mars in 2023.  And from a cursory inspection of the Mars One homepage (www.mars-one.com), the plan is to send more cargo and settlers every two years thereafter.

The applicants come from all around the world, over 140 countries, yet it should come as no surprise that the United States put up the biggest portion (making 24 percent.)  My first thought when I saw those numbers was that clearly our citizens don’t feel it’s enough to move to Canada to get away from our problems.  It’s altogether better to leave the planet.

What amazes me is that there are people who decided it wasn’t enough to just visit new world; we, as a species, are jumping right straight for habitation.  On an even deeper level, I am in awe of what humanity is proving capable of.  Fifty years ago, we sent a man to the moon.  In ten years, we’re taking a bolder leap in exploring the new starry frontier.  The stories we’ve written and filmed for years on space travel are no longer becoming as far-fetched as they were, and some of the romance in the adventure is being fanned anew.  It’s a very exciting time in history that’s coming and I feel privileged to be alive while this conversation takes a very serious turn.

The evening when I first read this, though, what really stirred me was gratitude at this world I live in.  This plan to colonize Mars is a wonderful opportunity; essentially what’s being planned is the birth of a new civilization, and how often will that ever happen?  As awesome as that is, I realized more than ever that Earth is my home and I love it.  I imagined what it would be like to say good-bye to this planet, and I realized that this would as sad as the death of a family member.  We’re living in days of miracles and wonders, but the greatest wonder for me is the life that I have here.