Owings Mills Woman is 'Aspiring Martian'

An Owings Mills woman is one of 100 people selected to train for a mission to Mars, according to ABC 2 News.

Laura Smith-Velazquez, 38, entered a contest sponsored by Mars One, a not-for-profit organization based in the Netherlands, which is planning a trip to the Mars in the next decade, ABC 2 News reported.

Smith-Velazquez was selected from more than 200,000 people from around the globe who responded when Mars One put out the call for applications in 2013, according to the organization, which narrowed the field Monday.

“The large cut in candidates is an important step towards finding out who has the right stuff to go to Mars,” Bas Lansdorp, Mars One CEO and cofounder, said in a statement. ”These aspiring martians provide the world with a glimpse into who the modern day explorers will be.”

Smith-Velazquez said she has been interested in a life beyond Earth since she was a child.

At age 8, she set out to be an astronaut. She has a degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and in a video clip explaining her interest in the Mars One project, she said that while working on her master’s degree, she wanted to design a colony on Mars.

The purpose of sending humans to Mars is to “aid our understanding of the origins of the solar system, the origins of life and our place in the universe,” according to the mission statement from Mars One. “...a human mission to Mars will inspire generations to believe that all things are possible, anything can be achieved.”

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Currently, Smith-Velazquez is a human factors and systems engineer and pilot, according to her bio.

As of this week, she’s also one of the ”Mars 100” selected to train in an outpost on Earth preparing them for Mars.

The Mars 100 includes 50 men and 50 women—39 from the Americas, 31 from Europe, 16 from Asia, 7 from Africa, and 7 from Oceania—according to Mars One.

Organizers of the competition say the next step is to see how well the candidates can function as a team, whittling them down to 24— six teams of four will be selected to embark on the trip to Mars—according to Mars One.

Smith-Velazquez applied to go to Mars with her husband, who was not among the 100 chosen, ABC 2 News reported, though he supports her decision to explore.

It takes seven months to get to Mars, and scientists anticipate people would survive a little more than two months before perishing on the planet, according to CNN.

The first journey would be in 2024, according to Mars One, which reports a four-person mission would cost $6 billion. Its business model relies upon crowdsourcing funds, sponsorships, broadcasting rights and other revenue streams. The company compared its model to that of the Olympics.

Screenshot from ABC 2/YouTube.