Mars colony (Credit: Mars One)
It looks like Lionsgate TV has won the sweepstakes to produce the Mars One reality series, which will chronicle the effort by “eccentric Dutch billionaire entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp” to colonize the Red Planet.
Mars One calls for new groups of four to be sent to Mars every two years, beginning no later than 2024. Announced last year, the scientific project already has received almost 300,000 applications from all over the world, which are being whittled down. Lionsgate TV is expected to start its own casting search, with the two selection processes ultimately merged.
For the next several years, the series would be covering the different stages of preparation for the mission, starting with participant selection and the finalists — called candidates — undergoing an 8-year training protocol. The series’ cast will evolve as candidates in the mission drop out and new ones are brought in.
“This is a social experiment that focuses on the people that would sign for something like this — they have to agree to participate and be willing to go on a one-way mission, knowing that if you go, you can never come back,” said Roy Bank, who is producing the project as part of his overall deal with Lionsgate TV.
The participant search is complex because the mission would require a lot more than astronaut skills. “They’re colonizing Mars and starting a new society, so this group needs to possess a wide variety of skills — from medical to engineering to social as they are going to live with each other.”
The last part will be tested with the candidates on Earth as they are sequestered in a Biosphere-type isolated environment for an extended period of time to find the right mix. Adding another layer to the dynamic within the group is male-female interaction.
“They will serve as a microcosm of a larger society, so it is not only about how they get along but also how they procreate; they have to create new life so the society grows,” Bank said. He called the show “a true social experiment.”
Most series in the so-called social experiment genre — like Survivor, on which Bank worked, and Big Brother – are a mix of a social experiment and a game show, with contestants moved away from society for a limited period of time and competing for a cash prize.
In Mars One, “the commitment is so much greater and much longer than TV season(s) would last; even before they would ever be put on a rocket, they need to be willing go for a longer period of time if not forever. Nobody knows if they will pull it off.” The last part leads us to one of the most controversial aspects of Mars One: “What makes it such fascinating social experiment the ethics of it,” Bank said. “Would a show like this be involved in promoting a suicide mission?”
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