From a glass box to the Red Planet: The strange jouey of the Australian Martian-in-training - CNET

While the initial concept of a Mars One reality TV show may be over (although there's a documentary still planned) Richards is at least adhering to the spirit of the original idea. He's currently spending five days and nights in a custom-built glass "Mars habitat" in the centre of Circular Quay in Sydney, Australia. (If you're wondering why this is even happening, it's a tie-in with the home entertainment launch of Ridley Scott's "The Martian". You know, the winner of best comedy or musical at this year's Golden Globes.)

From Monday February 8 to Friday afteoon, Richards will be required to perform a variety of random and unexpected tasks while people watch either at the habitat itself or online around the world. I was initially under the impression that the "hab" would be a two-way mirror, allowing the rubbeecking crowds to look in, while affording the erstwhile Martian at least the illusion of privacy. Apparently I wasn't the one who ended up completely mistaken.

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"I was informed on Thursday that it's actually completely clear glass, so I'll be able to see everyone looking at me," Richards deadpans. "Luckily I understand that if people are tapping on the glass they'll shoo them away for me.

"That said, I've been working as teaching associate for the Inteational Space University's Southe Hemisphere Space Studies Program at the University of South Australia, so I think that not having to wake up and deal with student will make this feel like a day spa...just a day spa where I'm being filmed 24 hours a day."

While he doesn't yet know exactly what he'll be doing in the hab, Richards did help the designers set up the challenges he'll face.

"I've worked with them for the past four or five months, talking about the genuine challenges people face on, say, the space station," he says. "I'm trying to make it as real world as possible. But even after all that, they've deliberately kept me in the dark to make it as interesting as possible -- for me and the audience."

Hang on: "real world?" Surely the pseudo-Mars hab might be a bit of fun, but it can't even vaguely compare to training for the Mars One expedition? There can't be a future moment in 2027 when something will go wrong on Mars, and Richards will be able to say: 'Wait! Eleven years ago I was in a glass box in Sydney and something like this happened. I've got this!'

"Believe it or not, most of Mars One training will be this sort of stuff," he says. "They'll be building mock Mars habitats, sticking us in in groups of four and seeing how we solve problems.

"The big difference is they won't be telling us when we can leave. Even the guys at Hi-Seas (a NASA testing habitat) are doing a 12-month stint at the moment. They know the timing -- we won't be told when the doors crack open, which will make for some interest research psychologically."

Interestingly, Richards says that it's the commercial and civilian nature of the Mars One mission that makes it more likely to succeed at getting human habitation established on a new planet than a govement venture.

"The course director of the ISU classes I've been working on is John Connelly from NASA, who's also been planning the human mission to Mars for those guys," says Richards. "John and I have spoken a few times about how NASA couldn't do a mission like Mars One, because it has to bring its astronauts home -- only a civilian organisation could do what we're doing and send people to another planet permanently."

There's still a long road before the Mars One crew even take that first step on the way to colonising our second-closest planetary neighbour. The current plan has remote vehicles being sent over in 2020 and 2022 to pick landing sites. Cargo payloads will be 2024, carrying life-support and habitats and then, finally, the first four astronauts will be sent in 2026, with more groups of four following regularly.

That doesn't mean Richards and the rest of the crew get to put their feet up for the next few years. In September, the fourth selection process will begin.

"We'll all gather somewhere in the world -- best guess is either Iceland or Dubai," he says. "They'll get us into groups and start testing us, see how we work together in groups. Around half of us will probably get filtered out in the first four or five days, then the remaining half will go around ten days of group testing in isolation.