A Chat with Sonia Van Meter, Woman Preparing for a One-Way Trip to Mars

Sonia Van Meter is the managing director of Stanford Caskey, a national Democratic opposition research firm. She's also one of 100 candidates selected by Mars One for Martian colonization in 2025. Many are skeptical of Mars One's prospects; many (like Buzz Aldrin) hope the mission succeeds. Regardless, Mars is the future that Sonia is preparing for, and we spoke on the phone last week.

I'm so excited to talk to you about this. I'm so jealous.

Oh, I'm so glad to get to talk to you, too. So much of what I've been asked is how I could possibly leave my husband and family, how I could stand to be such a horrible woman. I would love for this story to be told with a hint of a feminist perspective for once.

There are plenty of other women in the Mars 100, right?

49 other women!

Do you think they're all getting this reaction?

I think a few of them probably have. Although there are a lot of single women, and I don't know how many of the other women have children who are young.

There are certainly plenty of men and women who are married, anyway. But I might be one of the candidates who has younger children, even thoughnot to be coldmy children are stepchildren, and they do have two biological parents who will take care of them. And in 2024 they're going to be 21 and 24. It's not like I'm leaving infants to twist in the wind. As an ancillary parent, I feel like it's incumbent upon me to demonstrate to them that there's no reason why they shouldn't pursue their dreams.

What did it feel like when you found out you were part of the Mars 100?

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A Chat with Sonia Van Meter, Woman Preparing for a One-Way Trip to Mars