Virginia man defends decision of wife to join Mars One mission

When the organisers of the planned Mars One mission to the Red Planet announced the reality show search for contestants, one of the criteria that they set was that the applicant should ideally be a male-female couple. However, one of the 100 candidates is Sonia Van Meter of Virginia who would leave behind her family forever if she is chosen as one of the 24 finalists.

Jason Stanford, the husband of Van Meter, defended through a 4,000-word essay published in Texas Monthly his wife’s choice. Stanford said he is happy for his wife to be a part of history that changed humanity by expansion of boundaries outside Earth, if the mission succeeds.

The aim to establish a human colony in Mars, which would involve a one-way ticket for the finalists, has a heavier weight “than how much I’d miss Sonia or whether I remembered who our plumber was,” quotes The New York Daily News.

On July 20, the organisation behind Mars One announced that the 100 candidates would enter the next phase of the competition to trim their number to 24, reports Extremetech. They will divided into groups of 10 to 15 and participate in team-based and individual competitions to test their skills, ingenuity and strength.

The 100 would be housed in enclosed, high-pressure environments over extended periods of time. The goal of the competition is to observe how they could support the positive and negative sides of each other. The first phase involves placing them in isolation chambers for nine days, after which their number would be whittled to 40.

Ten more candidates would be removed and the remaining 30 would undergo a four-hour test, the Mars Settler Suitability Interview. Six would be cut further and the 24 would be offered full-time employment with Mars One, although that is no guarantee they would be part of the team bound for the Red Planet.

If Sonia gets into the list of 24, she would leave Stanford and 13-year-old Henry and 11-year-old Hatcher, their two sons. When the 100 was selected, the couple has been criticised and Sonia questioned over her priorities in life.

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