zondag 12 januari 2014

Migraine a medical condition which is a reason to reject me as a future Mars One astronaut

For the round 2 selection we need to do some medical check-ups.

You cannot be dependent on certain medicine, it was a problem for me and then again not really. I have to take Indural retard mitis every single day in the morning to prevent migraine-attacks. But a bit more than a year ago when I went to the neurologist for my frequent migraines, she told me to take the medicine for a year, if it was better that we could reduce it.

It is better only had one very bad migraine in a year time and a few minor once that were bareable.  So my doctor has started reducing and I should no longer have to take the medicine before the beginning of March. But to be sure I sent a mail to the Mars One selection committee to ask about my migraine. I got the news I had to be completely migraine-free without medication because it's a neurological problem. So I am kind of rejected because I cannot guarrantee to be migraine-free without medicin and even with medicine in the future.

Therefore this dream ended for me. Going to check my doctor Thuesday hoping for some miracle answer like 'you are migrainefree forever' but it is wishfull thinking. Last year my neurologist already told me I would always have migraines just not as frequent after taking the medicine and hopefully stabilized when stopping the medicine.

I was worrying in the beginning about family medical history but it seems my worries of getting to the next round were a bit closer to find.
Probably would have been shut out anyway with the osteoporoses in my family, chance is going to be big I will have it as well when I get older.

Still supporting Mars One though because I really want to see this happen in my lifetime :), never dared to dream of having humans starting a colony on another planet when I would be alive and Mars One changed this :).


Share this link with your family and friends and if you are interested in this project please help them start their first private mission.
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/mars-one-first-private-mars-mission-in-2018

woensdag 8 januari 2014

Why I want to go to Mars to be part of a colony?

Several reasons and I'll try to make a shortlist here to avoid a chaotic post :).

* next frontier for mankind, first step for mankind to scatter through the Universe
* exploring a new world
* check if life is possible on a planet with conditions completely different than ours
* first chance to develop and test technologies that give humans the possibility to live on other planets
* might be an excellent candidate to make an outpost for spaceships for later generations
* an opportunity to let mankind see that we are all one, make people understand we are tiny compared to the Universe and that it would be better to get along
* an opportunity to show and try to be completely dependend on ecofriendly energy, show the world you can almost recycle everything
* it will test the knowledge, resourcefulness, limit of our humanbeing in every way, we would learn more about who we are, what we are capable of, how adaptable we are as a species
* it's a one time oppurtunity in our time, and I wish to try to be part of the beginning of us humans crossing a new boundary in our existence.
* awaken mankind to show we can do more than ending up as lazy creatures in our lazy sofas, getting unhealthy, shorten our lifespan by becoming numb and stop exploring more and learning more
* having the chance of a lifetime of learning and researching different subjects in science, technology, psychology, sociology and so on, to be able to do it on the spot and not as some distance watcher on Earth
* to be one of the humans that will have lived on Earth and Mars. It would be interesting to see how Mars effects us and how we grow old there
* write our own history, following a dream that has pondered in the minds of humans for ages, since the beginning of humans we've always had a fascination for what's between the stars and later on how it would be to go there
* to be one of the first to set foot on Mars, touch the rocks, see an alien sunset, explore caves, maybe  find proof there was once life on Mars in some form
* it might also give a bigger view on the reasons of our existence, how special are we really?
* ...

Why not send only robots to do the job for us? Because robots have a lack of emotions and expressing itself, different way of viewing things, researching things. A human might use a robot as a tool but a robot can never replace a human and is limited in its tasks.

maandag 6 januari 2014

How I feel being one of the chosen 1058? What kind of person am I ?

I feel honored to be one of the 1058 that went on to the next selection round.

Eagerly waiting for more information about the interview and further steps that will be taken.

Some might ask me how comes you are chosen and your boyfriend didn't, well I have no idea. Maybe it is because I study Environmental Science as a hobby next to my fulltime job. It's not going exactly well at this moment, I underestimated the full-time working plus studying. But I am not giving up, it might just take some while. Studying shouldn't be a problem at the Mars One training if I get there because that will be kind of my job, training the body and studying.

I am used to doing several things at a time in my life, I have so many interests that I sometimes wish for a timekeeper like Hermione has in the Harry Potter books.

Being a busy, curious and social person just might have made the difference between being chosen and not.
At the moment I am going to fitnessclasses several times a week, I made my study and work-out schedule during my 2 weeks off work so I can start tomorrow with a fresh start.

Next to studying and working-out I enjoy reading books, especially fantasy, I also am a person who needs a creative outlet once in a while so I draw sometimes but for the moment I find cosplaying a satisfying hobby. You can find my cosplaypage on Facebook here : https://www.facebook.com/HellibelCreationCosplay?fref=ts  or my cosplayprofile here if you wish to befriend my cosplayaccount: https://www.facebook.com/hellibel.creation?fref=ts
Making my own costumes, even if they are not perfect because I am only a newbie in sewing stuff, is something that gives me great satisfaction.
Gaming is also a part of my life, especially strategic, simulation, RPG, MMO games. For example World of Warcraft is something I really like to play from time to time. Not everyday (used to play that much) but mostly in a weekend in the evening when I am not off with some friends or have no other plans with my boyfriend.
I am not a person who likes to go to dancings, yes I like to dance but I have no wish to get drunk or whatever or being surrounded by drunk people so mostly I avoid places like that. I more enjoy going to the movies, conventions, amusementparks, weekendtrips, gamenights with monopoly, Magic,  and so on with my friends and family.
Same for traveling, if the money and time allow me to I prefer to travel with backpack into the mountains, forests or just traveling to old cities with a lot of history, because as I am interested in the future I am also interested in the past.

I haven't traveled much yet because of financial reasons but I enjoyed all the places I went: Yorkshire because of the mediëval feeling in the United Kingdom. Yaszszentlaszlo in Hungary for an environmental camp when I was 15 and Budapest, Florence in Italy and Vinci the birth village of Da Vinci, a complete trip through Montenegro with my backpack till the borders of Albany in the mountains. I felt free and at peace there far away from all the fuzz in the world. Southern France where my boyfriends dad most of his time lives. I haven't left Europe yet and now I am starting a journey to leave to another planet. Most cannot grasp the fact I consider leaving for a one way trip when I haven't even explored all the corners of our own world yet. But although I love history, the future has a stronger call for me to move on than to look back. And working on the first steps of humankind moving onwards in the galaxy starting with colonizing Mars, is something I wish to be part of more than exploring every single corner of Earth, because there are 7 billion people on this planet that can do that. There only a few that can have the honor to explore another planet. I wish to be part of the few that have the honor. To have the chance to be able to say hey I actually am one of the first persons that lived on 2 planets. Half of my life on Earth enjoying it here, studying for leaving to Mars and around my 35/40 ,depends on how much delay there will be, I might leave to live on Mars for maybe another 35/40 years.

Follow your dreams is my advice to everyone, even if it seems impossible. We need our dreams to develop further :).

vrijdag 3 januari 2014

What is Mars One?

Mars One is a non-profit organisation that wishes to start a colony on Mars. The next giant step for humankind.

They will try this by using existing technology and by finding sponsors and through crowdfunding. A big money component will be using the media. They are planning to share the experiences worldwide on the tv of the Mars One applicants. This by following them in the selection procedure, training and eventually their lives on the Mars surface.

Later on the funding should come from the results of science projects on the martian surface, research programs and so on.

More information about Mars One can be found on their official website
http://www.mars-one.com/

https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/7726-private-mars-mission-in-2018 share this project :) so we can reach more people that might be interested in this mission. Only effort you have to make is joining the thunderclap with your Facebook, Twitter and/or Tumblr, a few clicks with your mouse and done :).
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/mars-one-first-private-mars-mission-in-2018 here you can support Mars One to start the first private mars mission.
http://www.mars-one.com/donate
Or you can donate here :).
Start believing in your inner-explorer today :)

woensdag 1 januari 2014

1,058 chosen to proceed to the second round of the Mars One selection program

It's been all over the news that 1058 people where chosen to proceed to the next round of the Mars One selection program.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/mars-picks-1058-potential-astronauts-mission/story?id=21382119

I'm one of them and I was suprised, happy and a bit sad at the same time because my love didn't get through. But he supports me, like most of my friends and family.

I wish the others that got through the very best and I'm happy to know already a few of them. I hope those that didn't got picked they try again later this year or keep supporting us and inspire others to do so as well.

Excited what will happen next and ready for it :)

A special message for those with a sceptical view

A colony on Mars, it sounds like a fairytale, impossible for most people.
A lot of negativity has been thrown to the heads of applicants and Mars One itself. Just want to remind the people before outing some negative responses at least take the effort to do some proper research and do not start screaming on the net things like only NASA or Elon Musk can do this. I read the last one a lot on different sites. Just want to remind those people that SpaceX is actually on the list of suppliers of Mars One, so Elon Musk is taking part in this adventure.
To those that are saying only NASA can do this: NASA is not the only spaceprogram on this planet, every continent has one, it's not because NASA put the first rover on Mars that other spaceprograms cannot be first to start something bigger.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_space_agencies

How Mars One will make this happen:
http://www.mars-one.com/mission/roadmap

For the negative half of the planet: it's a rough roadmap, you cannot expect a company to put the details on a site for everyone to see. I do not see NASA or other spaceprograms putting there construction plans and blueprints online so why should Mars One have to do it?

More info can be found further on the site of Mars One under the tab Mission. Under the tab FAQ you can find most of the answers that bother a lot of people when hearing the first time about Mars One.
http://www.mars-one.com/faq
Also Bas Lansdorp often gives a Q&A, we had one in August at the MMM in Germany:
http://youtu.be/nVZEaMRWLZk

Also the Facebookgroup   https://www.facebook.com/groups/aspiringmartians/ with some of the applicants and supporters of the project made a Wiki where you can find information about Mars, Mars One and human space exploration.
http://aspiring-martians.wikia.com/wiki/Aspiring_Martians_Wiki

Do not be afraid to ask questions in the facebookgroup, a lot of people will be glad to answer your questions.
Just make the effort of reading everything on the site of Mars One before judging.





A quick glimpse on my road so far

My application video:
https://applicants.mars-one.com/profile/03639470-8094-4a6d-a0b9-b7455c231561
Chinese television (my first interview):
 http://news.cntv.cn/2013/08/05/VIDE1375712760435314.shtml
Online article from NOS (Dutch):
http://nos.nl/artikel/539945-enkeltje-mars-droom-of-waanzin.html
Online video of the interview with NOS at Darmstadt meeting (Dutch):
http://nos.nl/video/539988-dit-is-een-te-grote-kans.html
Reportage Koppen at één (Dutch):
http://www.een.be/programmas/koppen/mars-one-mission-impossible
Pictures from the MMM in Germany (10th August):
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.215070421979097&type=1
Article at the local newspaper Laatste Nieuws:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10201935850051278&set=ms.10201935850251283.10201935850051278.10201935850011277.10201935850971301.10201935885292159.bps.a.10201935848651243.1073741852.1035307569&type=1&theater
Made it to the second round


Article in News Paper (French):
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10202176860596391&set=a.10201935848651243.1073741852.1035307569&type=3&theater


10-10-2014:  Rejection to continue because of my migraines. Neurological problem and the selection committee let me know I had to be completely migraine-free without medication. But even with I sometimes have them.