Local man gives up his mission to Mars

A local man dropped out of the running for a one way trip to Mars. A non profit, Mars One, was selecting 100 finalists. A Waukesha man was in the running but recently dropped out.

Aaron Hamm says, \"I knew it was exactly what I wanted to do the second I saw it.\"

Waukesha resident, Aaron Hamm, has been a lot of things--a mechanic, a physics student who quit, and a bike mechanic. But most recently he was a finalist for \"Mars One,\" a project to create a human colony on Mars. But the trip has one caveat--it's a one way trip.

Hamm says, \"It's not like going to the moon where we set some footprints down and that was the end of it, it's something where there is a permanence.\"

Hamm says he realized he would have to give up everything including his then fiancé.

Hamm says, \"I told her you're welcomed to come along, I said I don't care where anything in our life is at, I'm going to go for it.\"

So why do it?

\"Humanity on earth cannot survive into the indefinite future, there will be an end. The only way to overcome that is to continue to spread out.\"

An MIT study found the participants would be unlikely to live more than 68 days, but Hamm disagrees.

Hamm says, \"The 60 some days was based on not using any of the local resources.\"

Hamm ultimately dropped out not because of the risk of dying, or leaving everyone behind, but because the mars mission was being funded with a reality TV show.

\"I don't want to be on a reality TV show, i'm not a reality TV show star.\"

Mars One says they hope to deploy people every two years starting 2024.