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DIANNE MCGRATH

Part II: Humanity 2.0

By Agent Morphe

February 17^th, 2019

MARS ONE IS ACCEPTING EVERYBODY.

Everybody has a different way of looking at the world, and they’ll bring all their history with them. Everyone comes with their bags. Everyone’s baggage is different, so that helps us see things in a different way. The way we’ll come up with different solutions to problems on Mars we can’t even conceive of yet here on Earth, are going to be from a broader base of interest and experience.

If NASA was sending up these crews, they would be US citizens of course, because you have to be a US citizen to be a NASA astronaut. The same with all the other national space agencies – European space agency: you have to be European citizens, Japanese, Russian etc. You’ve got to be national residents of those countries.

Mars One is accepting everybody. This is about humanity, so humanity should be involved with this, not just one nation. But if one single nation was doing this, those people would have the identity of their nation, the political system, the economic system, the cultural element of their nation. What if we took all of those away and built it from scratch? How interesting would that be?

This is what I started to think about. How amazing. From the sustainability perspective, which I’m really passionate about, to survive on Mars, we have to live sustainability. There is no choice.

Re-supply, it’s almost impossible. There’s no Coles, there’s no Bunnings for fertilizer, we have to manage all of our resources so carefully.

We have to be really smart about things. We’ll think about things very differently because there is no other choice to survive. That really interested me.

Images of Mars One are supplied by Mars One and used with permission. All copyrights are reserved. Credit to Bryan Versteeg and Mars One.

CAN WE BUILD A WORLD WHERE OUR DIFFERENCES ARE VALUED AND NOT ‘OTHERED’?

But we are leaving our planet behind. The decision to apply was hard and not so also. These are the things you accept when you decide to walk a different path. I was so fascinated by the possibilities that this mission represents. Can we live as a united humanity to work together to achieve something extraordinary? Can we build a world where our differences are valued and not ‘othered’? Can we create a world where we must live sustainably to survive? Absolutely!

To live sustainably on Mars, all those systems to do so, the technology, everything has to have been invented, tested and tried here on earth first. Perhaps by trying to survive on Planet B (Mars), we’ve recreated Earth. If I can be a part of that, how amazing is that?

I don’t care if my name is not on any plaque or in a book. That doesn’t matter. I don’t care if Dianne McGrath is never known.

But if those things happen and I’ve helped someone else get to that, if I’m a shoulder someone else stands on to achieve these extraordinary things for all of us on this planet – hello - what an amazing opportunity. It was impossible not to sign up.

DO WHAT YOU WANT TO DO.

My family were completely understanding about my decision to go to Mars. Even when I was a young girl, my dad always said you have to live your dreams. Do what you want to do. He was probably the biggest feminist in my life. That first gender barrier to entry was never there so I never felt that I couldn’t do something because I was a woman. It used to frustrate me when people did bring the gender thing in to stop me or others, and it’s like ‘you’re kidding me’.

I’m very lucky. I’ve stood up and done things in many instances when other women wouldn’t. It really did give me a solid foundation to believe that nothing should stop me from doing what I wanted to do.

Dianne McGrath – ATP Charger at Alchemy Cryo

IT’S MY BODY.

There are multiple stages of Mars One’s astronaut selection, and an aspect of self-selection especially during the medical test part. I believe in preventing things rather than dealing with consequences later. It’s why I started spending a lot of time seeing a psychologist and counsellor. Why do we treat mental health any different to any other type of health? Why don’t we take a proactive approach to things rather than wait for something to go wrong? It’s ridiculous. The more we look at our health in a proactive way the better our long-term outcomes are. It’s self-empowerment really. It’s my body.

I didn’t make a decision straight away with my application for Mars One. I thought about it for a few months. I did research on it. Due diligence and risk assessments. I wanted to do the research myself to validate it. What’s their financial backing like? What does their technological road map look like? What are the qualifications they’re after? Who’s behind them, who are their advisors?

What about if I do get selected for Mars One, what are the health risks that astronauts face? What would my life look like?

Is the Dianne McGrath today going to be good enough – in a physical and mental sense? Will I be able to deal with that? I don’t know. And I realised that no, heck no, there’s no way I’d have been able to get into a spaceship at that point in time. I needed to become a totally different person. I had to change.

THAT’S WHEN MY BIO-HACKING JOURNEY STARTED.

There are so many health risks that astronauts face at a level that is beyond what we have here on this planet. The amount of bone and muscle mass lost, vision impairment, mental health issues. That’s when my bio-hacking journey started.

I looked at bone mass for example. If I could put bone in the bank, I could afford to lose some. Astronauts will lose bone mass in space even if they exercise two and a half hours a day. However, bone mass returns to them, because they come back to earth.

We won’t come back. We’d be going on a one-way journey to Mars.

Yes, there is gravity on Mars but it’s only a third of Earth’s. You’ll still get some weight-bearing exercise, but significantly less. Will that be enough for our bones to get that remodelling signal? Potentially. But that’s a risk I don’t want to take. So, I started working on trying to grow bone mass to put some in the bank.

I did years of biohacking, years of self-experimentation, prototyping, testing, applying, tweaking, changing. I found out that 82% of male and 64% of female astronauts come back from the Space Station with vision impairment. At the time I was wearing glasses, but I haven’t worn them in over three years because I’ve reversed my vision.

In my case it was as simple as recognising why the eyes start to change in their focal length. And a lot of it is because we don’t use the muscles very much. Our eyes are most comfortable looking distance – so you really have to look out the window and allow your eyes to relax and spend time focusing on things further away.

Look beyond the boundary of our world. Because it’s there, it’s all there.

I AM CURIOUS BY NATURE.

I believe in the Zen philosophy of ‘empty your cup’. The philosophy is that there’s no room for fresh tea if your cup is already full, so you have to empty the cup first. We add things in constantly – add in, add in, add in; and then we’re freaking out because life is too much. Take stuff out first, make space for it.

My life as a minimalist these days, living homelessly in some ways, intentionally, I don’t have much stuff. It’s gone and it lightens things up. If the bookshelf is full there’s no room for new books – it’s very simple.

I stopped running marathons because research shows that anytime you’re running for anything over an hour, you lose bone and muscle mass. No worries. Instead I started doing resistance training. Take something away, add something in of value. I didn’t just go straight to adding in, I took away the things that are damaging first.

It’s like if you stepped on a nail, are you just going to take some painkillers? You’d take out that nail first wouldn’t you? It’s very simple. I am curious by nature and it allows me to think that way.

We need to trust ourselves, ask the questions, not just take things we’re told.

IT WAS FAIR, I LOVE IT.

The application process had four stages: you had to register first, then you were sent the application form which is answering a lot of questions, really not technical questions, more about how we responded to certain situations.

They were trying to find people who were resilient, who can adapt, well-rounded people who were resourceful and trusting. They really weren’t after skills at all. These were the key qualities they were after for the astronaut candidates. That made me feel comfortable.

It doesn’t matter that I’m not an Astrophysicist, they’ll pick me for me because of who I am, for those qualities and what I can bring.

I remember the day I did the video part of the application for Mars One. I’d been out for a run, I was wearing a hoodie, my hair was a mess, I didn’t care. If they’re going to pick me because of production quality of this video, then that’s not for me. They need to see the real person. I had come up with what I wanted to say during the run, so I thought ‘do it now’. I had to answer three questions: why I would like to go to Mars, my sense of humour, and what makes me the perfect candidate.

We had to pay an application fee which was on a sliding scale, based on the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the country you were in. If you are from a wealthy country, you’d pay more to apply; and if you’re from a poor country, you’d pay very little to apply. It meant that it was accessible to people. It was fair, I love it. I think I paid about the equivalent of AUD $30. You can’t even go to the movies twice for that.

I REMEMBER PRESSING THE SUBMIT BUTTON.

I submitted the application in June 2013. I remember pressing the submit button. It’s gone now! I was on my own when I did it. The only people who knew that I applied were my partner at the time and my best mate. I didn’t tell my family. I thought it was a bit of a long shot.

You were highly encouraged to make the application public on Mars One’s website. I saw the photos, bios and videos of all the other people who were applying. There really were Astrophysicists and people who worked for NASA today!

There were over 200,000 applicants at the beginning. A lot of people pulled out at different stages. It’s very smart of Mars One to weed out the people who were not serious.

I wasn’t completely confident that I was going to get through, but I was definitely not going to get through if I didn’t apply.

I remember in December 2013, that same year, when I got the email from Mars One. It was just after Christmas. I was in Denmark in a hotel room and I saw it come up on my computer. Oh my God I got through! First, I thought it was spam from my mate back in Melbourne, but then I saw it was real – ‘Congratulations, you’re one of 1058 who have been selected’.

I’M NOT THERE TO PICK UP ROCKS, WAVE A FLAG AND GO HOME.

The next stage of the process we were asked to have the medical tests done. I thought it was a bit of an effort to do that – do I continue on with this? But I wanted someone else to say no to me, not for it to be me. I did my medical tests, had ECGs (Electrocardiogram) and vision tests.

I think 300-400 people were culled from the medical tests. Some of them dropped out, but others were just not healthy enough. At that stage there were approximately 700 people and they invited 660 of us from that for a video interview which for me was in 2015 and lasted for 15-20 minutes.

Mars One Head of Selection interviewed all of us! I specifically decided to either be one of the first or last ones interviewed so that I’d be remembered. We were all asked the same eight questions – four were technical and four were personal. We were also asked to study a heap of material.

I was prepared for all of the questions, except the last one.

The last question, ‘Imagine you are one of the early crews, and have been on Mars now for three years, and the technology suddenly exists for you to return, would you?’. I was very honest. I said I wouldn’t know until faced with that situation, that I’d most likely stay because at that stage there would only be two crews on Mars – eight people.

What if I’m one of the ones that were trained on medical procedures and I left; what a risk for the rest of that community.

I’m not there to pick up rocks, wave a flag and go home. Those that had that approach, they were out. The Head of Selection at Mars One was looking for people that understood that they had an ongoing role in the Mars One settlement.

CONGRATULATIONS, YOU’RE IN THE 100.

One of the technical questions during the interview was mathematical. I went to grab a notepad to do it and he said, ‘no, put the pen down, do it in your head, because you might be stuck out on the planet somewhere’. So, I did it out loud so he could hear my thinking - a bit like when you’re at school, you might get some marks on the way.

He told me how he would’ve done it afterwards, and I said I had done it a different way and still got the same answer.

As soon as I said that, I was thinking in my head, ‘Shut up Dianne, shut up. Don’t argue. No way he’s going to choose me, no way.’

Shortly after the interview in February 2015 I was walking down the street in Coburg when I got the email saying ‘Congratulations, you’re in the 100’.

IT’S BREAKING DOWN THE SILOS.

We’ve been told what we need to do to get ready for the next round of selection, which should be happening in 2019. We need to self-organise into ten diverse crews of ten – age, gender, culturally diverse. We have to learn a lot of technical material that they’ve sent us: medicine, psychology, physiology, engineering – as we’ll be tested on that during the selection process.

There will be five days with different challenges as teams – to show how well we work with other people. It’s all very fine that you might be a good candidate in interview, a lot of people can interview really well, but how well do you work with others, can you communicate well, what’s your EQ like, not just your IQ?

What’s your cultural awareness like, how well do you listen to other people and seek help from others, or do you think you know all the answers?

At the end of each day, the selection committee will kick out about ten to twenty people, and then the next day we have to re-organise into new diverse crews. And the process continues for five days. This exercise tries to find people who understand that their success is only going to come from the success of everyone else.

It’s not about my team winning on day one. It’s breaking down the silos. It’s realising that we all contribute to this outcome, which is greater than all of us, or our teams. That’s all I can do, bring the best me to this.

THEY’RE WATCHING US NOW.

At some stage during the different challenges, someone may be pulled out of a team, to go and be tested on the material we’ve had to study, and that team cannot progress unless that person gets the answer right.

The team I’m in from day one has already had study sessions online. We’ve had group google hangouts to get to know each other. I want you to succeed, because that means I’m going to succeed, and our team will succeed.

I’m reliant on you to get it right.

They’ll also be looking at how we looked after our hotel room - have we trashed it? How do you behave when you’re not in the spotlight? It matters. They’re watching that. They’re watching us now.

THEY WILL HAVE US DO THINGS THAT MAKE US UNCOMFORTABLE.

Another thing that Mars One’s Selection Committee will take into consideration is something called a sociogram. At the end of each day, they will be asking each of the team members to nominate three other people in their team that they’d be happy to live with for the rest of their lives on Mars. This sociogram shows all of the connections and the people who aren’t well connected.

By the end of the five days, there should be 40 people left. And then those 40 people will self-select into small crews to go into isolation for nine days. They’ll be locked away to solve a difficult technical problem. Most likely to do with life-support systems or something mission critical. They will have us do things that make us uncomfortable.

It might be that they stop the plumbing, or there’s no food. It’s actually one of the reasons I did long duration fasts, because I thought, ‘what if we’re made to go hungry for a couple of days?’ Knowing the first selection process is five days, I fasted for five days, to see how I’d go. It was no problem. I could probably do seven days without too much difficulty, but I can do five very comfortably, with nothing but coffee and water. I’ve also done sleep-deprivation work.

I hacked myself. I worked out how I can optimise my mental acuity, my well-being, my mental health.

THEY ARE PLANNING TO SEND THE FIRST CREW TO MARS IN 2031.

After the nine days in isolation, Mars One will chose 30 people and ask them all to do a four-hour interview: the Mars Settler Readiness Interview (MSRI) and they will choose the final 12-24 that get a contract as astronauts, to start training for ten plus years to get ready to go. Pretty cool – imagine the things we’d learn.

At the moment, I’ve got a 12-24% percent chance of being chosen and trained to go on a one-way mission to live on Mars. It’s better than buying a lotto ticket. Pretty good hey!

They are planning to send the first crew to Mars in 2031. It takes about seven months to travel there. Then there will be new crew sent every two years. There will be 4 astronauts in each crew: 2 men and 2 women, from ideally four different countries and age diverse.

THIS WOULD BE SPARTAN.

Life on Mars would be interesting. No one has ever brushed their teeth on Mars before. Fluid will move differently because gravity is less. There will be a lot of exploration and discovery. For someone who’s so curious, that’ll be fascinating. There will be a lot of play.

It will be hard. Don’t get me wrong, this would be spartan. It will be isolating. This will be the first time anyone will have left our planet and not be able to see Earth anymore.

Everyone who’s been in space would have been able to see Earth and returned. No one has not come back and lost vision of the planet as they moved away, that’s never happened.

How will we feel about ourselves? How will we identify? Anyone who has a spiritual background has a basis that’s grounded in this planet, Mother Earth. God created the world, it’s all based on THIS world. What happens when we’re on another world? How do we then see ourselves in that sort of spiritual sense? How do we fit into the universe? And how will language evolve?

The astronaut crews will have at least four different languages. We’ll all speak at least three. There are things that we experience on Mars that there won’t be words for. In the English language, there’s about a thousand new words a year that go into the dictionary.

There will be new words that will develop on Mars.

THEY HAVE BLUE SUNSETS.

I often joke that what I would miss the most on Mars is dairy – of course they’re not going to stick a cow in a spaceship. On a serious note though, what I’ll miss the most is the natural environment. If I get to leave this planet to go to Mars, launch day would be the last time I ever feel the sun on my skin and the wind in my hair. Sand beneath the toes, the ocean. Never feel the natural environment, never hear. I will miss breathing it and living it. It’s an experience I won’t have again.

On the other hand, I’m curious, because I’ll be on Mars. What’s the Martian environment like? They have blue sunsets. What does it look like?

What I look forward to the most is discovery. To be a part of that first journey, it’s hard to describe.

I think ever since I was shortlisted into Mars One as one of the 100, it allowed me to change the way I thought about my time today. Some people see that leaving this planet in ten to fifteen years is a death sentence. I don’t. I see it as a life sentence instead. I see it as an opportunity to live more, and so I appreciate the time I have.

Dianne McGrath – Cryo Room at Alchemy Cryo

EVERY MOMENT THAT I HAVE IS PRECIOUS.

Nothing matters more than this moment right now speaking with you two. Like nothing mattered more than giving that woman a hug and having a photo with her. Everything else stopped when I did that. Time stops.

Life on Mars will be one continuing experience that I ‘d try and be present for. If I get to go, I want to make the most of that. I have a sense of excitement now, and of course there will be nervousness, and moments of anxiety. All of the emotions you’d feel in life. There will be a sense of peace too. Because it’s so quiet – deep space.

There will be nothing else on Mars except us – the humming of the spaceship and the habitat, that’s it.

YOU DO YOU.

I really do believe that just about anything is possible. Usually we’re our own barrier to success. Don’t let others set the borders or limitations to your dreams because they’re YOUR dreams, and not someone else’s. Everyone else is living their lives. You do you.

I want life to be full of failure because that means I’ve tried stuff, right? If I don’t succeed, I’ve learnt so much more. If life just cruised along, am I really that satisfied?

You feel most successful when you’ve overcome a great challenge and come out the other side – that’s how you grow.

Follow your dreams! What’s the worst that can happen? The worst that can happen is life stays the same.

I’m allowing myself personal preparation for Mars One. To be the best I can be. The bonus is I’ve now completely transformed myself as a human being. It’s been amazing and I’m so grateful.

Photography by Maya Sugiharto & Aviva Minc | Written by Aviva Minc

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Dianne McGrath is one of the 100 Mars One Astronaut Candidates.

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"Mars One aims to establish a permanent human settlement on Mars. Mars is the only planet we know of that can currently feasibly support human life and will be humankind’s first step to become a multiplanetary species. Before carefully selected and trained crews will depart to Mars, several unmanned missions will be completed, establishing a habitable settlement waiting for the first astronauts to arrive. The Mars One crews will go to Mars not to simply visit, but to live, explore, and create a second home for humanity. The first men and women to go to Mars are going there to stay." – Mars One

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THANK YOUs

Dianne McGrath – for trusting us and allowing our lens to capture your presence; for your generosity, honesty and openness in sharing your story to inspire others to follow their own dreams. It's been an amazing and insightful experience. It is truly an honour to be a part of your journey.

Emma Sledge, Mars One Communications – for providing us with information and images of Mars One, and for being so helpful. It is much appreciated.

Nitel Mimi and Julian Loh from Alchemy Cryo – for your generosity in allowing us the space to capture Dianne's story, for being so helpful throughout the shoot.