Ryan MacDonald, U.K.

What drives a person to dedicate their life to exploring the unknown? In this episode of Aspiring Martians, host Joe Sweeney sits down with Ryan MacDonald, an aspiring Martian from Derby, England, who has been chasing the dream of going to Mars since he was 18. A former Mars One candidate, Ryan has spent his career preparing for humanity’s future beyond Earth—earning a Ph.D. in Astronomy from Cambridge, studying physics at Oxford, and researching exoplanet atmospheres at Cornell’s Carl Sagan Institute. Now a NASA Sagan Fellow at the University of Michigan, he’s using the James Webb Space Telescope to hunt for signs of alien life on distant worlds.

Joe and Ryan discuss what first inspired him to apply for Mars One as a teenager, what keeps him motivated to pursue this goal, and what humanity can learn from the search for life beyond Earth. They also explore a big, unsettling question—what if we never find life anywhere else in the universe? Tune in for a fascinating conversation about exploration, purpose, and what it really means to be an Aspiring Martian.