Many couples have survived a long distance relationship, but 140 million miles is taking that term to a whole new level.
Sonia Van Meter is one of 100 people competing for a ticket on a one-way trip to Mars as part of the Mars One program. If she is selected, she would leave her husband, Jason Stanford, and two stepsons behind.
Mars One is an independently funded space program that looks to send a small group of people to live on Mars. While there are a lot of ifs connected to the program, Van Meter and Stanford are already preparing for what life could be like planets apart, Peter Holley reported for The Washington Post.
SEE MORE: What you need to know about the man who discovered Pluto
“I like to think of it as the world’s longest-distance marriage,” Stanford said. “We would get to explore a new way of being married that has never been tried. How do you stay connected to someone who is at least 35 million miles away? I don’t have the answer, but her being on a different planet doesn’t mean I’m not going to feel intimately connected to her.”
Van Meter’s choice to participate in the program may separate her family, but her video statement on the Mars One website shows just how passionate she is about the project. Stanford said it was this passion that made it impossible not to support her dream.
“Everyone focuses on what I might lose,” he told The Post. “But my wife, she truly believes in the best of humanity. With this mission, the whole world is getting to see her at her best and I get to be part of her life as she becomes the greatest version of herself.”
While Van Meter, Stanford and Van Meter’s two stepchildren have come to terms with the possibility of a life very far apart, many on social media have responded negatively, Standford explained in an article for Texas Monthly.
“She must really be sick of her husband,” one person commented in an article about Van Meter.
“Nothing says ‘I love you’ more than a one-way trip to Mars,” another person tweeted.
Stanford wrote that even though he and his wife have faced a lot of judgement, he feels they have made the right choice.
“This would all fit more neatly into popular understanding if we were conforming to gender stereotypes, if she were the man and I the supportive wife,” he explained. “She could be understood as an explorer, and I the determined source of support back at home.”
Van Meter said the couple will continue to honor their wedding vows even if they have to do it from such great distances, Vibeke Venema reported for BBC.
"He once told me he'd love me to the ends of the Earth and beyond, no matter what,” she said. “We didn't anticipate that the 'what' would be going to another planet."
Related links:
The spiritual side effects of viewing Earth from outer space
More than 1,000 people selected for potential move to Mars
Shelby Slade is a writer for Deseret News National. Email: sslade@deseretdigital.com, Twitter: shelbygslade.