BY: SARAH HAGMAN
Somerville resident Chris Patil is in the running for the trip of a lifetime: a one-way ticket to Mars. Two years ago, the scientific editor—and 200,000 other people—submitted applications to Mars One, a group hoping to send a crew to the planet in 2026. “My 9-year-old self would kick my ass if I didn’t apply,” says Patil, now one of 100 finalists. The 24 astronauts will be selected in the fall of 2016; in the meantime, we chatted with him about the next giant leap for mankind.
SO WHAT WOULD YOU PACK? People expect me to say I’d bring a picture of my mom, which I wouldn’t. I would take electronic versions of those sorts of things. Every cubic centimeter that I can fill with something that’s non-essential, I would fill with spices because they’re very efficient. You don’t have to use a lot of them; years’ and years’ supply of spices fit into a kilogram of mass, and it would be hugely psychologically beneficial to be able to flavor our food in interesting ways. And I love to cook…. We’d be eating, at first, things that we brought from Earth and then increasingly supplementing it with food that we grew. Obviously that would be pretty much a vegan diet, although I have hopes that things like small fish and crickets might be brought with the astronauts. But we’ll definitely be eating our greens on the red planet.
WHAT WOULD YOU WANT IN A CREWMATE? Someone who’s forgiving. The one thing that’s true of all of us is that we’re all going to make mistakes.… I’d also like them to have technical sophistication and the ability to learn. You couldn’t put four empathetic people with no other abilities on a rocket ship to Mars and expect them to do well.
WHAT WOULD THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES BE? One is scientific research, which to me is one of the most important motivating reasons to go to Mars. There are questions we can ask and answer there that we can’t answer on Earth—having to do with the origin of the planet and whether the planet ever hosted life or maybe, fantasy result, maybe it still does somewhere deep under the surface—that we just can’t get done with robotic explorers. Aside from the research, things like growing crops to supplement our diet, maintaining the atmospheric control system, will be a bigger part of your life than being a home owner on Earth; that’s for sure. And then the other part is preparing the habitation for expansion. Mars One’s plan involves sending a new crew of four individuals every two years and two months. Things like constructing habitats, covering them with Martian soil so that they’re protected from radiation, digging to expand new territories that can be pressurized and lived in—so when the next crew arrives, the first crew can basically say, “Here are the keys; welcome to your home.”
WHAT QUESTIONS ARE YOU STILL TRYING TO ANSWER? One question I have is, how are we going to get the money? Mars One is this hybrid public-private partnership. The mission itself is not-for-profit, but it’s going to receive funds from the private arm of the organization, and they’re going to do things like sell the broadcast rights to the landing…. All that payout comes at the end of the beginning when we’ve trained astronauts for 10-12 years, bought a rocket, figured out all of the technical details and gotten everyone to Mars. Why would anyone invest in that right now when they could do something else with their money? And so I don’t understand the funding model. I guess I’m skeptical.
BUT YOU THINK IT’S WORTH PURSUING? I think it’s a great opportunity to encourage kids to pursue technical fields. Why should I care about math? You need to know about math because you need to know about rocket trajectories. You need to know about it because someday a rocket is going to take you to your new home somewhere other than Earth. But if you want to be a part of that, you really need to study math. And kids get it right away.
The Future Is Now!
Or it at least feels that way in the Boston area. Between our buzzing startup scene and the research of our world-class hospitals and universities, th
By Improper Staff | Photo Credit: Mars renderings: Bryan Versteeg / Mars One | July 31, 2015
Out of This World
BY: SARAH HAGMAN
Somerville resident Chris Patil is in the running for the trip of a lifetime: a one-way ticket to Mars. Two years ago, the scientific editor—and 200,000 other people—submitted applications to Mars One, a group hoping to send a crew to the planet in 2026. “My 9-year-old self would kick my ass if I didn’t apply,” says Patil, now one of 100 finalists. The 24 astronauts will be selected in the fall of 2016; in the meantime, we chatted with him about the next giant leap for mankind.
SO WHAT WOULD YOU PACK? People expect me to say I’d bring a picture of my mom, which I wouldn’t. I would take electronic versions of those sorts of things. Every cubic centimeter that I can fill with something that’s non-essential, I would fill with spices because they’re very efficient. You don’t have to use a lot of them; years’ and years’ supply of spices fit into a kilogram of mass, and it would be hugely psychologically beneficial to be able to flavor our food in interesting ways. And I love to cook…. We’d be eating, at first, things that we brought from Earth and then increasingly supplementing it with food that we grew. Obviously that would be pretty much a vegan diet, although I have hopes that things like small fish and crickets might be brought with the astronauts. But we’ll definitely be eating our greens on the red planet.
WHAT WOULD YOU WANT IN A CREWMATE? Someone who’s forgiving. The one thing that’s true of all of us is that we’re all going to make mistakes.… I’d also like them to have technical sophistication and the ability to learn. You couldn’t put four empathetic people with no other abilities on a rocket ship to Mars and expect them to do well.
WHAT WOULD THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES BE? One is scientific research, which to me is one of the most important motivating reasons to go to Mars. There are questions we can ask and answer there that we can’t answer on Earth—having to do with the origin of the planet and whether the planet ever hosted life or maybe, fantasy result, maybe it still does somewhere deep under the surface—that we just can’t get done with robotic explorers. Aside from the research, things like growing crops to supplement our diet, maintaining the atmospheric control system, will be a bigger part of your life than being a home owner on Earth; that’s for sure. And then the other part is preparing the habitation for expansion. Mars One’s plan involves sending a new crew of four individuals every two years and two months. Things like constructing habitats, covering them with Martian soil so that they’re protected from radiation, digging to expand new territories that can be pressurized and lived in—so when the next crew arrives, the first crew can basically say, “Here are the keys; welcome to your home.”
WHAT QUESTIONS ARE YOU STILL TRYING TO ANSWER? One question I have is, how are we going to get the money? Mars One is this hybrid public-private partnership. The mission itself is not-for-profit, but it’s going to receive funds from the private arm of the organization, and they’re going to do things like sell the broadcast rights to the landing…. All that payout comes at the end of the beginning when we’ve trained astronauts for 10-12 years, bought a rocket, figured out all of the technical details and gotten everyone to Mars. Why would anyone invest in that right now when they could do something else with their money? And so I don’t understand the funding model. I guess I’m skeptical.
BUT YOU THINK IT’S WORTH PURSUING? I think it’s a great opportunity to encourage kids to pursue technical fields. Why should I care about math? You need to know about math because you need to know about rocket trajectories. You need to know about it because someday a rocket is going to take you to your new home somewhere other than Earth. But if you want to be a part of that, you really need to study math. And kids get it right away.
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