Maggie Duckworth, a resident of St. Louis who has an engineering degree and designs costumes, says ever since she was a kid - she's been fixated on outer space. "I've probably been interested in outer space since my first word, which ... was saying 'home' while pointing up at the stars." Duckworth says her parents regularly exposing her to Star Trek at a young age was also an inspiration. Now, she is one of 100 finalists as part of the Mars One project, which aims to send a group of four people to colonize Mars by 2022. It's been controversial, with critics questioning the plausibility and ethics of such a project. The trip to Mars would take over half a year, and there'd be no plan for a return mission to earth.
So why would Duckworth offer to live out the rest of her life on the red planet? "We've sent robots all over the place in our solar system and even beyond, but we haven't really taken that next step ... Until we get to Mars we're never going to get anywhere else. And I think it's really important that we start getting out there, and start learning about the rest of our universe," she says. Check out the entire interview:
