Men are from Mars. Women go to Mars!

Giving literal meaning to the phrase “the stars are the limit,” Curro Mount Richmore invited one of the short-listed candidates for the Mars-One mission, Adriana Marais to inspire the schools “budding scientists” by sharing with them the fascinating plans for the Mars project.

Marais, a scientist by day and avid dreamer by night, schooled in Pietermaritzburg.

She studied theoretical physics and philosophy at the University of Cape Town and completed her MSc summa cum laude in quantum cryptography at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN).

She was awarded her PhD in quantum biology this year.

The Mars-One mission, which is set to launch in 2026 has proposed to land the first humans on “the red planet” and establish a permanent human colony there by 2027.

Marias is one of 100 people from around the world who were selected to participate.

Next year this number will be whittled down to 24 candidates who will be committing themselves to 10 years of training before the opportunity arises to launch into space.

The private spaceflight project is based in the Netherlands and is led by Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp, who first announced the Mars One project in May 2012.

Pupils listened in awe as they imagined the possibility of living on an entirely different planet.

“When you feel your dreams are too big, remember my dream was to go to Mars and I am very close to achieving it,” said Marais.

The 33-year-old said Mars was chosen because it was the closet planet to earth – being 200 million kilometres away.

“This will be the first step to exploring the galaxy. The air in Mars is mostly made up of CO2 (carbon-dioxide), so we will not be able to leave our shuttle without our suites and oxygen tanks. It will take us seven months to reach our destination.”

She said the red planet had some similarities to earth.

“Mars is similar to earth in that it has a night and a day. There are 24 hours and 40 minutes in a day, so there is just a 40 minute difference from earth.”

The key to their survival was the discovery that the sand on Mars consists of ice particles.

“We will melt the ice to get water.”

Marias said it would be a challenging project.

“This is going to be a big mission. Once we get there, our main focus will be on planting and growing food which will be done in a green house. For protein, we will probably transport insects like crickets and mopanie worms.”

The 24 successful candidates will leave earth with no intention of returning, however, they will have satellites enabling a connection to earth via the internet.

Their shuttle will offer a homely set up with a bedroom, lounge and a TV. The aim is that more rockets will be built for people to visit the planet or move there.

“Maybe one day I will see you all in Mars. Maybe you will come over for a business trip.”

The pupils were thrilled with the suggestion.

The audience erupted with excitement when Marais spoke about one of the project’s many aims: to find aliens on Mars.

She explained that since Mars once had oceans, it is suspected that there might have been living organisms on the planet.

“Mars was discovered 400 years ago and we may only find fossils now. By aliens, we are not necessarily referring to weird and creepy creatures, it could be any form of bacteria.”

Curro Mount Richmore’s PA and Marketing officer, Marilize van As said Marias was “a true role-model for the young, technologically advanced generation”.

“Part of our grade 6, term four assessments, our pupils have to build and programme a totally autonomous Mars rover that can collect “samples” from the surface of the planet.

“We are inspired by Adriana’s wealth of knowledge and skills which she delivers in such special way.”

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