But Skeptics Say It's Unlikely Any Will Ever Fly In Space

The private non-profit organization Mars One ... which plans to send human volunteers on a one-way trip to colonize Mars ... has named 50 men and 50 women from its 202,586 applicants to proceed to the next round of the Mars One Astronaut Selection Process. These candidates are one step closer to becoming the first humans on Mars. Mars One has a goal of establishing the colony in 2025.

“The large cut in candidates is an important step towards finding out who has the right stuff to go to Mars,” said Bas Lansdorp, Co-founder & CEO of Mars One. “These aspiring Martians provide the world with a glimpse into who the modern day explorers will be.”

The Mars 100 Round Three candidates were selected from a pool of 660 candidates after participating in personal online interviews with Norbert Kraft, M.D., Chief Medical Officer. During the interviews the candidates had a chance to show their understanding of the risks involved, team spirit and their motivation to be part of this life changing expedition. “We were impressed with how many strong candidates participated in the interview round, which made it a very difficult selection” said Dr. Norbert Kraft.

The Mars 100 Round Three candidates come from all around the world, namely 39 from the Americas, 31 from Europe, 16 from Asia, 7 from Africa, and 7 from Oceania.

Mars One believes human settlement on Mars is possible today with existing technologies. Mars One says its mission plan integrates components that are well tested and readily available from industry leaders worldwide. But the plan has its skeptics. Writing on Quartz online, columnist Tim Fernholz says that the primary roadblock is the $6 billion that the group says will be required to send the first humans to Mars. He says space programs are "notorious for cost overruns and delays", and that their timeline for the program is very aggressive. The group says it will build a practice colony on Earth this year, but Fernholz reports that no location has been identified. It also says it hopes to launch a satellite and robotic lander in 2018, and that the companies contracted to conduct studies for those projects have completed them ... but Fernholz found that those contractors have received no further instructions from Mars One.

Fernholz also points out that a broadcast deal that is supposed to provide the primary funding for the mission has yet to materialize, and the group was unable to raise $400,000 on Indigogo for seed money for the robotic mission.

For these reasons, and others, Fernholz says that it is very unlikely that there will be an unmanned mission in 2018, let alone a manned mission in 2025.

(Images provided by Mars One)

FMI: www.mars-one.com, Quartz article