Rejection...

[pheloniusfriar]

Well, I am in good company as almost 200,000 other applicants (there were 17,377 from Canada alone) were also rejected, and I will also not be progressing to "Round 2" of the Mars One competition. Many of the other rejected applicants, I'm sure, were much better candidates than I, although I still feel I was a viable choice. In particular I have a rather rare (unique?) mix of skills and experience that would benefit such a complex venture: electronic, software, fault-tolerant, and aerospace engineering; international project management; amateur musician and radio host; writer, editor, and publisher; theoretical physicist [in training]; feminist scholar [in training], licensed pilot with a current Class 1 medical; and single parent of two children with disabilities [tougher than any of the above]... a press release was issued today, and I received a "personal" ("dear occupant") email:

Dear Mars One applicant,

Did you know US astronaut Clayton Anderson was rejected by NASA for its astronaut training program 15 times, yet in 2007 he boarded the Space Shuttle Atlantis for a trip to the International Space Station. He proved anything can happen and no door is ever completely closed.

You, and just over 200,000 other aspiring astronauts around the world, took a bold step in applying to be one of our first heroes to leave Earth permanently for a new life on another planet. We cannot thank you enough for your daring effort.

At this time, we’ve made the decision to reduce our applicant pool down to just over 1000 and your application has been declined. Let’s talk about what that means.

This is not the end of your dream. We will be reopening the application process for you at a date to be determined in 2014. We want you to seriously consider re-applying. Each and every applicant, including yourself, who was not chosen in in this initial round, will have many other chances to re-enter the selection pool and try again. Don’t give up.

If you’re wondering why you’re applicant was put on hold, please review the selection criteria here. This is the criteria we used when considering your application.

Our goals are the same – human life on Mars and advancing humankind’s evolution as a multiplanetary species. Let’s continue our mission together!

Regards,

Mars One Selection Committee

Sadly, based on the tone of the press release in particular, I will not be re-applying if the opportunity should be offered. I feel that my goal of going into space within this lifetime is still good (possibly even excellent... I continue to make positive progress in that direction with both my work and education), and will focus on those avenues that I think are going to provide the highest chances of furthering my efforts. I should say that if I'd made it to the next round I would have been "all in" with the Mars One effort for as far as it gets (whether it launches or not, I feel it will pose a set of extremely important questions and challenges that will further the process of establishing permanent human colonies on other worlds). I do wish them all the best and promise to be nice to them when they finally arrive on Mars. Maybe I'll even invite them in for tea ;). Okay, not gonna happen (me on Mars like that, not their efforts, heh), but I do hope to make my own contributions to the general effort as I go :).

Comments

[popelaksmi]

they are encouraging you to re-apply - why won't you? I'm confused.

[pheloniusfriar]

There are a dozen or so reasons (going "one way" to Mars is not one of them, I'd still do it in a heartbeat if I had the chance), but I can narrow it down to a few. The first is the tone of the press release... it really rubbed me the wrong way. I know that they are trying to keep the hype going by keeping the door open to a second (or third, or?) round of applications, but it just struck the wrong note with me. It ties in with their overall plan, which is to run the selection and training processes as reality TV to raise the necessary capital. I get why and support their efforts, but I fit more into the quietly competent category than the reality TV star mold. The chances of going, even if selected in the first 1000, are pretty slim and anyone who progresses now will have to dedicate a hefty chunk of the next couple of years to that process. And that leads to my last point: that I can use the time I would have had to dedicate to the public process with Mars One to my own work, and that those efforts will give me an excellent chance (much better than continuing with Mars One) of getting into space (and will give me a heck of a fun ride on Earth even if I don't succeed in that specific goal).