A few years ago, Netherlands-based non-profit Mars One took in over 200,000 applications for the chance to be the first four people to colonize Mars. Now the pool has been whittled down to 660 finalists, three of whom appeared on a short YouTube documentary titled "If I Die On Mars".
Ryan from the UK is a physics student/teacher who believes that the most important thing in life is to leave a legacy, and being in the first colony on Mars would be the best way for him to do that. He also says he's never had sex or kissed another person. Dina from the US has already gone through the pain of leaving her family forever when she left Iraq's oppressive culture and doesn't feel that she will need a family to be able to survive. Jeremias from Mozambique believes that Earth is not a good place to live any more with too many problems that are impossible to solve and going to Mars would be a good way to solve problems by simply starting again from the beginning.
It's a rather intense series of interviews and provides great insight into the mindsets of the kinds of people who would be willing to leave Earth forever to be the first to touch down on the Red Planet. You can watch the mini-documentary AFTER THE JUMP…
