Matt Damon is so cool that he makes a movie entertaining, even when most of it is about getting stuck alone on a planet for a year. The number one activity for a good twenty minutes of the movie was planting potatoes with human feces (he was running out of food and he needed fertilizer), but you were still glued to your seat, fascinated about what came next. If you have yet to watch The Martian, do so. There is enough Matt Damon and enough science in this fiction to make it worthwhile, but it is also a movie that will seem dated in 10 years.That is because by 2016 there will already be astronauts chosen for the first trip to Mars. By 2023 we could have a base in Mars. By 2027 we could have people there (potato farming could really happen in Mars by then!). If you would like to apply click here. Just be aware that they can fly you there, but you are not coming back. The technology to bring people back isn’t here yet. Unlike the movie, you would be signing up for a one-way trip.When the not-for-profit leading the project, Mars One, made their first announcement two years ago, 10,000 people emailed asking to apply. Seems farfetched, but in reality this would be the greatest adventure humankind has ever undertaken. Even if it meant never seeing your family or maybe anybody else—ever again. If you are that first lucky human to step on Mars, your name will be etched in stone for all of history.To put it in perspective, Cristopher Columbus travelled 5,000 km to cross the Atlantic. The first Apollo mission travelled 384,000 km to go to the moon. The distance to Mars is 54 600 000 km. Going to Mars is a big deal.Nobody will remember Matt Damon in 50 years, but everyone will know the name of the first person to set foot on Mars. Apply while you still can!Graphic for article: Courtesy of Nasa.govLink to graphic: https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/iotd.html?id=367277This article was originally published on www.discoverdownsview.ca