Despite the fact that Sonia Van Meter’s decision to fly to the planet will mean she’ll never see her husband or children again, the astronaut has accepted her place on the Mars One - expected to leave within 12 years.
But her understanding husband Jason Stanford says her decision is ‘bigger than me’ and that he 100% supports his wife’s decision.
The couple, who live in Virginia, America, have two sons - Henry, 13, and Hatcher, 11, who will both only be in their late teens or early twenties when their mother plans to leave.
Jason said in Texas Monthly: ‘It raises existential questions far weightier than how much I’d miss Sonia and whether I remember who our plumber was or knew where she kept all the passwords.’
‘If it succeeds in its mission - establishing a sustainable colony on another planet - it would change the history of humanity by expanding out boundaries beyond this planet.’
But Stanford says his wife is frequently asked how she could abandon her family in her quest for Mars - after she was shortlisted for the trip.
‘We’re just an ordinary married couple in an extraordinary situation, and we’re just taking it once small step for man at a time.’