A free online university course will teach you Mars survival skills
We could be living on Mars by the year 3000, so it's time to get prepared.
To help us earthlings ready ourselves for the journey, Monash University in Melbourne, Australia is offering a free online course focused on how to survive the red planet.
Developed by astrophysicist Jasmina Lazendic-Galloway and chemistry professor Tina Overton, the course "How to Survive on Mars: The Science Behind Human Exploration of Mars" will run over four weeks, three hours per week with the first instalment beginning on Oct. 24.
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According to Lazendic-Galloway, the course emerged from she and Overton's love of Andy Weir's bestselling novel, The Martian, which was made into a 2015 film starring Matt Damon.
"What Tina and I liked was obviously The Martian book," she told Mashable. "We liked that the scientists were treated as problem solvers. Not like other space films with egos and aliens everywhere.
"This story actually showed what science is about -- not just boring facts and formulas but real problem solving skills."
If you're an accountant with a space-bent, no worries -- the course is designed for those with no previous experience in space science. It'll offer an introduction to basic concepts about how to live in space without air, the ability to grow food and how to find a water supply.
By the end, the course list says students will be able to "apply basic science to explore possible ways of producing water, oxygen, food and energy on Mars."
Lazendic-Galloway said the course was purposefully interdisciplinary and focused on basic life skills.
"Science is interdisciplinary, not just chemistry, not just astronomy and not just physics. And on Mars, you will have to know a bit of everything," she explained. "The reason we wanted to keep it to survival is we know the first colonies will really be fighting for their survival."
"We know the first colonies will really be fighting for their survival."
There's also a larger purpose to the online course: The two academics want doubters to know there will be humans living on Mars within the century.
There's a lot of preparation going on behind the scenes, she suggested, and the work of passionate private companies such as SpaceX also make it inevitable.
"People think that we can't do these things. That we can't go back to the moon anymore -- it's too hard and expensive. It can be done, it will be done," she said.
It looks like people are eager too. At least 1,500 people have signed up since the course was announced Wednesday.
So given she's teaching people to survive on Mars, would Lazendic-Galloway go herself? "Yes I would. In an instant," she laughed.
Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk has said he wants to send people to Mars by 2024. You've got eight years to study up, martians.
Ariel Bogle was an associate editor with Mashable in Australia covering technology. Previously, Ariel was associate editor at Future Tense in Washington DC, an editorial initiative between Slate and New America.
