When the Kickstarter to end all Kickstarters was announced in 2011, Mead McCormick, a University of Chicago graduate, was among more than 200,000 individuals who applied to be a part of a four-person team to embark on a one-way trip to establish the first human settlement on Mars as early as 2024.
On February 16, the shortlist of candidates dubbed "The Mars 100" was announced, with McCormick in their ranks. In her application video, McCormick greets supporters in the only acceptable way to apply for a space mission: donning a Boba Fett helmet.
McCormick believes that "because the whole project is going to be televised and broadcast for the whole planet, it would be good to have somebody up there who knows what they're doing with documenting the experience" and her double-threat bounty hunter/filmmaker know-how might just earn her a place on the mission.
The largely publicly funded Mars One Mission not only aims to set up camp on Mars, but will also broadcast to the world the selection process, training and mission, hoping to gain some private funding by securing a TV deal a la Red Planet reality show. In true Big Brother fashion, the final stages of candidate selection will be influenced in part by audience support and voting.
Keep an eye out during the next round of candidate selection for the former Chicagoan/future Martian.