MEET KAREN

Thanks for spending some time and space with me.

I’m Karen Cumming – a journalist with more than 20 years experience in local, national and international radio and TV news.

My freelance writing has appeared in such publications as Oxygen Magazine, More Magazine, Costco Connection, Investment Executive and The (Hamilton) Spectator. I also worked as a producer/reporter at the 2012 Olympics in London for Olympic Broadcast Services.

Before becoming an aspiring astronaut, I started out as a radio newscaster/reporter for CHUM in Montreal. I then moved on to CHML in Hamilton and Talk 640 in Toronto, where I added talk show producing to my resume.

A move to Edmonton gave me the chance to get into television with CanWest Global. Later, I joined CHCH-tv in Hamilton for nearly a decade as a reporter/producer.

There’s nothing I love better than telling other people’s stories.

Thanks to “The Mars 100”, I have a pretty cool story of my own to tell now.

I’ve shared it in print, online, on radio, on television, and at two amazing annual conferences in Toronto: “ideacity” and “BlissDom”.

I can’t wait to share it with you.

Check out all the “Mars 100” Media coverage and my writing portfolio here!

Would you like to work together? Call me or send an email or a tweet, and let’s talk!

Meet Karen

Mars 100 Video (February 2015)

The Mars One Mission is the brainchild of Dutch engineer and entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp.

His dream? To colonize Mars. To establish a permanent human settlement on the red planet.

By 2011, Lansdorp had grown impatient with NASA’s stance that it would only send humans to Mars if it could also bring them back.

Currently, the technology required to do that does not exist. That’s when the privately funded Mars One Mission was born.

In 2013, Lansdorp and his partner, Arno Wielders, invited people all over the world to apply for the chance to join the mission

as an astronaut. More than 200,000 brave souls from 107 countries answered the call.

On December 30, 2013, the field was narrowed to 1,058.

On February 16, 2015, the Mars One Selection Committee officially announced “The Mars 100”.

50 women and 50 men from around the globe are vying to become one of the final 24. It’s expected that a reality show will document

the selection process.

Crews of four will depart Earth once every two years, beginning in 2024.

The first unmanned mission will be launched in 2018.