Mars One: final 100 candidates selected for reality TV show-funded mission to red planet
Mars One has published a list of the 100 on their website
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Mars One, the private mission that hopes to take the first humans to Mars, has announced the 100 candidates that have made it through to the project’s third round. Just under half of those remaining will go into training for a Mars mission funded by a reality TV show, the company behind it hopes.
The remaining contestants will now go through selections rounds that “will focus on composing teams that can endure all the hardships of a permanent settlement on Mars”, the project says. They will be trained in a copy of the Mars outpost, and will be tested on their suitability for working in a team.
Eventually, 40 candidates will be chosen to train properly for the mission. They will go through an eight-year long process before viewers of the reality TV show vote for the final crew in 2025, which will be made up of four people.
The mission then hopes to send four-person crews every two years, meaning that eventually there will be 40 people on the planet.
Funds from the TV show will help pay for the mission, which is projected to cost about £4 billion.
“The large cut in candidates is an important step towards finding out who has the right stuff to go to Mars,” Bas Lansdorp, co-founder & CEO of Mars One, said in a statement. “These aspiring martians provide the world with a glimpse into who the modern day explorers will be.”
The project has published a full list of the 100 remaining contestants on its website. They are made up of 50 men and 50 women who passed the third round of tests — successfully getting through interviews with the mission’s chief medical officer.
The list includes high profile candidates such as Maggie Lieu, an English PhD student who has become one of the more famous of the 100 remaining candidates.
Lieu has said that while she would be upset to leave her family behind, the fact that she could continue to speak with them over the internet will be enough. The crew will spend ten years together preparing for the mission, which should be enough time to form new friends and family, she said.
Asked by Newsbeat whether she would like to have a baby on Mars, Lieu said: "I'm very open to having a baby on Mars. I think it would be really exciting to be the mother of the first ever baby born there.
"My baby could be the first ever Martian, we'd be the Adam and Eve of Mars.
"But I'm also pretty aware there are a lot of risks involved because you don't know what the gravitational effects are."
The 100 contestants were whittled down from 202,586 original applicants. Chief medical officer Norbert Kraft reduced the 660 remaining candidates to 100.
The list is made up of 39 people from the Americas, 31 from Europe, 16 from Asia, seven from Africa and seven from Oceania.
Those candidates that weren’t selected will be able to apply again in 2015.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments