‘If I die on Mars’, A Short Documentary About Three Finalists in the Mars One Mission to Colonize the Red Planet

“If I die on Mars” is a short documentary by The Guardian that profiles three of the finalists being considered for the Mars One mission to colonize the red planet. The goal of the mission is to send crews of four people on one-way trips to Mars every two years beginning in 2024 to build a permanent colony there.

More than 200,000 people paid a fee to be considered for the mission, and the Mars One organization plans to raise funds by creating a worldwide media event around the mission.

Three volunteers are on the shortlist to be among four people on the Mars One programme, the first manned space flight to Mars – a one-way trip that’s effectively a suicide mission. A physics student in the UK, a young doctor from Mozambique and an Iraqi-American woman, all happy to sacrifice their futures for a place in history. Why do they want to leave Earth, and who are they leaving behind? As the list of potential Mars explorers is whittled down further on 16 February, meet those competing to be the first to land on the Red Planet.