FARMINGTON, Utah (AP) – If men are from Mars, as the popular relationship book has suggested, Ken Sullivan just wants to go home.
Sullivan, a Farmington resident, is one of eight Utahns who recently got a bit closer to their ultimate dream of one day colonizing Mars. Sullivan is one of 1,058 people worldwide, chosen from a pool of more than 200,000 applicants, who were recently informed that they passed the initial screening process and are in the running to participate in the Mars One project (www.mars-one.com), a nonprofit private venture to establish a human settlement on Mars.
These thousand-plus hopefuls will eventually be whittled down to a couple dozen people who will train to be among the first four-member crew to leave for Mars in 2025.
Sullivan first heard about the project last August when he saw a story on the Internet about the open application process for Mars One.
“I became enthralled with it,” Sullivan said of the project. “I’d always had an interest in going into space, like most children, and this really spurred that.”
Born and raised in Utah, the 38-year-old Sullivan graduated from Woods Cross High School and then attended Dixie State College. He became interested in EMS training and eventually moved to Salt Lake City to work for an ambulance company.
“But then I thought it would be more fun to fly an ambulance than to drive one,” he said.
So Sullivan first became a helicopter mechanic, and then began flying the machines. Today, he’s the lead pilot for CareFlight, an air ambulance service based in Truth or Consequences, N.M. He commutes there from Utah, on a seven-days-on, seven-days-off schedule.
Sullivan applied for a spot on Mars One – along with a couple hundred thousand other Martian wannabes – and Dec. 30 got the news that he’d made the first cut.
Ah, but there’s a catch: It’s a one-way ticket – those selected will go to live on Mars for the rest of their lives.
Oh yes, and one more catch, too: Sullivan is married, with children – four of them, ranging in age from 13 years to 6 months.
And that’s the real story here. What happens when your wildest dream comes into direct conflict with your current reality?
Sullivan has been doing a number of media interviews since he cleared this first hurdle toward Mars, and everyone is asking the same thing. How could a guy with a wife and four children – including a 6-month-old – even consider leaving them with no hope of return?
“There’s always pros and cons,” he told the Standard-Examiner. “And the most difficult thing will be leaving my family behind.”
Sullivan says he takes comfort in the fact that there are people who have done this before – who have left home and family to colonize new places, or who simply went out exploring.
“I do think that humanity, deep down inside, wants to explore and learn,” he said. “I’m confident this project will be successful, and that it’s not going to be a suicide mission.”
Still, Sullivan knows there are those who will judge him for leaving his family. He’d hoped his youngest child would be 18 and out of the house by the time the first flight to Mars left, but if all goes as scheduled, the first colonizers will leave 11 years from now.
“I’ve heard it all – why in the world would I want to up and leave the kids? It’s so selfish,” he said. “It is kind of selfish, and it’s hard for me not to look like a total ass.”
Still, Sullivan insists none of this is considered lightly.
“I get a little emotional thinking about it,” he says, his eyes glistening slightly. “Do I love Mars more than I love the family and the kids? But I don’t frame the question in that same way. I also see it as, I can be an example to my kids about pursuing a dream.”
Sullivan’s wife, Becky, says her husband is “obsessed with this Mars thing,” but she’s trying to keep it all in perspective.
“I’m not worrying about it until it gets serious,” she says. “If I think about it too much, I get upset. I’m trying to be optimistic and not freak out.”
Whether or not her husband is eventually selected, Becky Sullivan admits it’s difficult not to feel at least a bit of rejection over the decision. They’ve briefly talked about divorce if he is chosen, so she could move on with her life.
“I’ve had those thoughts, too,” she said. “Why don’t I mean more – why don’t the kids mean more – to him?”
But in the final analysis, she says she supports her husband’s decision.
“Even if I was opposed to it, it’s something he wants to do,” she said. “Your dreams are your dreams.”
