Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Plenty of us imagine what it might be like to visit another planet, but Maggie Duckworth is no idle dreamer. The 29-year-old from Bridgeton has advanced through several rounds in a competition to become an astronaut for the private Mars One project, which intends to drop earthlings off on the red planet—permanently—in 2024.
How have you advanced in the selection process? I filled out an application online with a 30- to 70-second video and the answers to a series of essay questions. They asked me to describe a fear, or a situation where I was out of my cultural element and how I responded. You have to answer a lot of questions designed to test you regarding problems you may face.
So what happens next? The pool of applicants for the whole world just shrunk from 1,058 to 705, and I made it. After that, I submitted the results of a physical. The next step is regional interviews. They’ll select just 20 applicants from each region. The U.S. is divided into three regions, so I have to make the cut of 60.
What then? If I can do that, there will be interviews for the Mars One selection committee. Presumably, they’ll want me to show how friendly and easy to get along with I am. They intend to gather money through a reality-TV program, which will be a competition between regional teams. Four winners will head for Mars in 2024.
This isn’t a NASA thing? NASA says they’re committed to putting someone on Mars by 2030, but this is Mars One, out of the Netherlands. They are determined to pick a nonpolitical entity to represent the Earth. The creator of Mars One, Bas Lansdorp, has been seeking out contractors and working with people from all over the world.
Could this actually happen? They are beginning construction of a habitat on Earth, designed to resemble the Mars habitat. It’s proceeding. They believe the technology exists; they just have to construct it. They’ve presented compelling arguments online. They’ve got a way to get up into orbit, and they’re working on a vessel to get people out to Mars. We have the technology to keep humans alive in space for seven months, too. That’s how long it will take to get to Mars.
This is a one-way trip. Well, each of us is already going to leave the Earth after a set amount of time. The Mars astronauts will, too, but they’ll be doing something completely unknown. There’s a lot we can work to change from up there, a lot of scientific studies we can do, a lot we can do better than robots, which don’t have that human element. For one thing, people are needed on Mars to determine if there has ever been life on Mars.
If you’re there for the rest of your life, I hope you can choose a boyfriend or girlfriend from amongst the other three people! Well, two years later, they’ll send another four. We don’t know how long they’ll keep sending groups of four. Until the budget runs out, I guess.
Why do you want to do this? I have always been interested in space exploration. When I was young, my biggest passion was NASA. Everyone in my grade wanted to be an astronaut, but I took it to the next level. I had a telescope and made star charts and always dreamed of going to other planets. This is something I thought I never would have the chance to do.
What do you think life on Mars will be like? I think it would be a lot like being permanently stuck in your parents’ basement. [She laughs.] We’re going to have the Internet, TV, videos, and time to do a lot of exploring. It’s not going to be that different from living on Earth, but you can’t go outside to the movie theater or the store. You’re stuck in one space, but I want to write and draw and work on mechanical engine theories. I can do that in a closed room, as long as I get some exercise now and then.
You are also the co-owner of an online business that sells clothes for cosplay, where fans dress up as characters from pop culture. Yes.
And part of that is manufacturing the largest zipper in the world? We manufacture 30-gauge zippers. When the teeth are joined together, they’re an inch wide. People use them in displays, in cosplay, in fashion. We originally created them because we wanted to make the most accurate Kingdom Hearts costumes, so we contacted this company in China. They developed molds for us. We found out the minimum order is 1,000. We ordered 1,000, sold them, and we keep doing it.
