You've heard about the Mars One program, right? The ambitious mission that proposes to send a small group of humans on a one-way trip to Mars in 2023 to colonize the red planet? The deadline to apply for the mission was August 31. Mars One received over 165,000 applicants and now I cannot stop perusing the profiles of wanna-be Martians. The site reads like OKCupid for NASA LARPERs.

Anyway! The viability of the mission itself is questionable for numerous reasons, the latest of which is just how destructive it could be for its participants mental health. As the Guardian explains:

While the colonists go about their business, Earth will be watching them 24-7. We already know that surveillance can cause stress, fatigue, depression and anxiety, which will add even more weight to an already extreme mental health burden. The Mars One team has made no public comment on the effects of combining the risk factors of social isolation and confinement with surveillance, but we do know that the programme depends on the money raised by reality TV contracts. So presumably the show must go on.

What happens when the colonists get fed up with the interplanetary Truman Show and turn the cameras off? Will Mars One be forced to abandon them?

Perhaps the most worrying concern is that the colonists won't have real-time access to mental health services such as counselling and psychotherapy. Recent studies have found that simulated psychotherapy via an automated computer programme called Deprexis can yield small-to-moderate benefits in depression, but this approach is only about 50% as effective as normal psychotherapy. And given that the colonists are likely to suffer from a wider range of psychological problems than depression, automated mental health interventions simply won't cut it.

Where does all this leave us? Mars One may be audacious and media-savvy but it is built on a psychological vacuum. In addition to the issues raised here, the planners have given no visible consideration to how they will address the lack of modern medicine, sexual relationships, pregnancy, raising children, ageing and death. And that's not even considering the public trauma on Earth that would follow a televised tragedy on Mars.

God. We're nine years out from the projected launch date and this mission's already starting to echo every intergalactic horror movie I've ever seen.