by Jatzia Gilzean-Colon
Students and staff alike flocked to the media center after school on Friday, February 27th for an open interview with Cassandra Morphy, a township resident looking to permanently relocate to the surface of Mars.
Morphy is one of 100 people tapped for a one-way ticket to Mars in the year 2025. From a pool of almost 200,000 applicants from all over the world, she was picked along with 49 other women and 50 men to colonize the planet. The Dutch nonprofit organization planning and funding the trip will further pare down the candidates, and in 2025, the Mars One project will send the first of six four-man crews to Mars.
According to Morphy, a one way trip is approximately 6-8 months long and there was not a special qualification the Mars One project required of its applicants. “Anyone who applied had a chance of going,” she said. After being selected, Mophy said, she has been pretty busy with countless local interviews, but overall, her life has been the same.
One of those interview requests came from WHS business teacher Mr. Nowicki, who was interested in asking some of his own questions. The interview was completed via webcam in the all-new conference area in the back of the media center. 25 students gathered around a large projection monitor and asked Morphy questions ranging from, “What is your favorite type of music?” to “What made you want to go to Mars so badly?” and everything inbetween.
As it goes, Cassandra Morphy is 32 years-old and enjoys toying with computers. She works as a Mathematical reporter and has worked for companies like Johnson & Johnson, as well as Bloomberg.
The prospect of living on the planet has intrigued Morphy since reading a fictional book about the first people to ever live on Mars. Now, she claims to have no second thoughts and isn’t afraid of the dangers that potentially lie ahead for a project like this. “We will all die eventually. My plan is to make sure it will be on Mars,” Morphy said.
For entertainment while on the planet, she will write about her experiences and hopefully turn it into a book. She plans on keeping in touch with her family through social media such as Facebook and Twitter, and says that she will probably miss pizza the most.
Morphy said she is very excited and that she will remember her interview with the Woodbridge High School students while she is up in space.