Can You Leave Your Husband Forever to Settle in Mars? She Can!

An "aspiring Martian" from Austin, Texas, is ready to abandon family and friends, only to fulfil her wish of being one of the first humans on the red planet 10 years from now.

Even though it means not being able to see every one she loves and being exposed to unknown dangers in a foreign planet, 35-year-old Sonia Van Meter - a political consultant by profession - is ready "to do absolutely anything to be a part of the next great adventure."

As many as 200,000 people had sent in applications to the Dutch not-for-profit organisation Mars One last year. And, Van Meter is one of the 705 people who are looking forward to forming a 20 to 40 strong human colony on Mars, BBC reports.

"I don't think you can apply for something like this and not be the tiniest bit insane," she said.  

Her husband Jason Stanford revealed that her 35-to-one chance of leaving forever has evoked mixed emotions.

"Like any good red-blooded American male, at first I thought this was all about me. I thought: you're leaving me," Stanford said. However, with time he came to understand that it wasn't that. He added: "The more she talked about it, the more I realised she was doing this for the right reasons - she was doing this to show humanity what we can all do if we work together."

The Mars One program is aimed at establishing a permanent colony of 40, with four "Marstronauts" being shipped to the red planet every two years, starting 2025. The non-profit foundation has asserted that this is possible with the help of existing technologies. The candidates selected by Mars One will be trained internally and then sent to Mars in groups of four, The Horn reports.

Van Meter said that it is her background in sociology due to which she aspires to take part in the mission. She has a bachelor's degree in sociology from the Georgia State University and has also studied sociology at the University of Texas' graduate school for one year.

"The diversity of our race offers tremendous opportunity for us to learn and grow, but is also a source of conflict. A world deeply entrenched in race/class/resource wars needs something unifying from time to time to remind us we aren't really all that different from one another. And nothing unified the world more than those first few steps Neil Armstrong took on the moon," Van Meter said.

Her husband further said, "I'll be Mr Sonia Van Meter for the rest of my life, showing up to cut the ribbon at Sonia Van Meter High School and telling her story here on Earth." On the other hand, Van Meter adds: "I am incredibly fortunate in that I have a remarkable family to leave behind."