Besides, why shoot for the moon when you can travel an extra 228m kilometres and colonise Mars instead? In 2012, against the backdrop of stagnating global space programs, one private not-for-profit in the Netherlands seemed poised to kickstart this new chapter of human civilisation. Here was Mars One’s other big selling point: an open call-out for anyone in the world to apply, no prior aerospace experience required. But no TV deals were made, alternate revenue streams were called into question and Mars One’s grand ambitions began to look less like “disruption” and a lot more like another fake-it-till-you-make-it tech-utopian pipe dream. The only thing more powerful than the human survival instinct is the human drive to do stupid things to reach far-off places.