The title you see above is a line from one of my favourite movies, Contact, based upon a book written by Carl Sagan.

In this movie scene, billionaire and business mogul S.R. Haddon (played by John Hurt) offers Dr. Eleanor Arroway, a SETI scientist, (played by Jodie Foster) the opportunity to pilot a spacecraft designed by extraterrestrials and make first contact with aliens from another world.

And of course, she takes him up on it.

This month, the 200,000 applicants for the one way mission to Mars was narrowed down to 100, six of which are Canadians. Burlington, Ontario native, Karen Cumming is among the finalists.

The objective is to begin building a colony on Mars, and this six billion dollar mission is slated to take off in 2024.

Four people will be initially dispatched to head for the red planet with another four people being sent every two years, until they have reached a total of twenty-four colonists.

Comprehensive tests were done to see which types of people would be best suited for this unprecedented journey.

Much to everyone’s surprise, the athletic types placed second next to those who were content spending long periods of time by themselves.

Yay loners!

However, there’s been many movies about humans trying to colonize Mars and it never ends well for the humans.

I applaud the volunteers for their bravery and sense of adventure and wish them Godspeed.

However, if I were offered the opportunity for a one way ticket to Mars, I would have to decline and send my regrets citing the words from another one of my favourite movies…

“There’s no place like home.”

❤