Space is one of the most mys terious places imaginable, and we’ve only just begun to unravel its secrets. However, in 2024, there will be a small group selected by a nonprofit organization, Mars One, scheduled to journey to our neigh boring planet and develop the first human settlement there. Charles H. Parrish II, a senior in biological engineering, is in the running to be one of those lucky people.

Parrish has been narrowed into a group of 1,000 out of 200,000 ap plicants from around the world and is now in the final stages of selection for this journey. As the selection process moves forward, he consid ers the possibility of his acceptance and what that would mean for his future and the future of humanity.

“It will be interesting to see how a new society arises,” Parrish said. “There will be an entirely new op portunity for governments and new laws or lack of laws. Will there be money? How will economics work? Will there be interplanetary trades?”

Parrish also said he believes learn ing about the Martian environment and the sustainable practices he and his fellow astronauts implement there will be inf luential in how we treat our own environment on Earth.

“I would love to be able to demon strate on kind of a global scale, since it will be televised, a way of living minimally and doing the most that we can with the little resources that we bring with us and living in a way that is self-sustaining and respect ing the Martian environment,” Par rish said.

However, Parrish said he recog nizes how different the Martian environment is from Earth’s.

“It’s an atmosphere that we can’t breathe,” Parrish said. “It’s thinner than ours and a different compo sition. So just existing within that framework is going to be an inter esting experiment to see how the human body and psyche adapts to that.”

Not only is the experience of Mars’s terrain something Parrish looks forward to, but the potential for discovering life there is also fas cinating. This mission is the first of its kind and its success could deter mine the future of space explora tion.

“That’s a very important ques tion,” Parrish said. “Is there or is there not life elsewhere in the solar system or the universe? Either an swer to that question is going to be humbling and empowering.”

To many people the idea of board ing a spacecraft set to rip through our atmosphere and never return is frightening, but these potential technical difficulties are the least of Parrish’s worries. The risks of trav elling and living on Mars include more than just physical hazards, but also psychological. If selected, he will be set to live on Mars with a group of people for what could likely be the rest of his life.

“The most important thing is be ing able to communicate well and build trust with one another and be ing able to operate in a way that you can be comfortable with one anoth er and stay friends by the end of it,” Parrish said. “That’s going to be the biggest thing is psychological com patibility, and I’m more concerned with that than I am with physical harm because I trust the engineers.”

Parrish said he realizes the scale of this trip and the change his life will go through as he settles down on the red planet. Parrish is knowingly leaving behind his opportunity for a normal life in the name of scientific advancement.

“It is a one way mission with no guarantee of return, and I am op timistic that within my lifetime we will develop the capacity to make the return mission,” Parrish said. “I’ve applied for this knowing there is no guarantee, and I’m coming to terms with that.”

For now, the selection process continues, and even Parrish ques tions the paths he should be tak ing before the process is complete. Should he continue his life as he normally would, or should the pos sibility of his acceptance be taken into consideration?

“I’ve wanted to go to graduate school for a long time, and the final selection will be done by mid-2015,” Parrish said. “Do I go ahead and set myself in motion to get into gradu ate school and start the program there and start pursuing my Ph.D., or do I keep that as a backup until I’m sure I get into this?”

If Parrish is selected after all it is undeniable that his life will take a drastic change, even before he is due to lift off millions of kilometers into space. The future he has in his education and career will rest on his acceptance into Mars One’s team of astronauts.

“Were I ultimately selected, I would soon after become a full-time employee of Mars One as an astronaut,” Parrish said. “I would undergo training and preparation involving education and mission simulations at analogue research stations and likely in virtual reality.”

Parrish said, if he is not selected, he will attend graduate school for biological engineering and intends to apply to the NASA Astronaut Corps.

So, if he is selected, what will Par rish do for the next 10 years when he is not participating in the training and educational programs of be ing an astronaut of Mars One? His answer is rather down-to-Earth in comparison to his larger-than-life aspirations.

“Enjoying the little things,” Par rish said. “Being able to go outside and not be in spacesuits. Just being able to go pick fresh food and eat it, spending time with friends and family and just living.”