Did you make the cut to move to mars?
Last summer, more than 200,000 people applied for a one-way ticket to Mars. This week, 1,058 of them were selected to move on to the next round.
The applications — all in video form — were not sent to NASA, or another national space agency, but to a nonprofit organization called Mars One. Based in the Netherlands, Mars One has the unusual goal of turning the colonization of Mars into a reality show with a global audience.
The call for applicants to move to Mars went out in April. Anyone older than 18 was invited to send in a video in which they explained why they wanted to go to Mars, and how they felt about never returning to Earth. They were also asked to describe their sense of humor.
Search criteria
In this first narrowing down of future Mars colonizers, the team focused on choosing people who were physically and mentally capable of becoming human ambassadors to Mars, said Bas Landsorp, co-founder of Mars One.
Those who were taking the mission less seriously were excluded.
The pool of selected applicants includes 472 women and 586 men. More than half of them are under the age of 35, but 26 are over the age of 56. The oldest applicant to move on to the next round is 81.
The contenders hail from 107 countries. The United States is the most heavily represented, with 297 applicants moving on to round two. Canada had the second biggest showing with 75 applicants.
Series of tests ahead
Over the next two years, the hopefuls will continue to be whittled down as they are put through a series of physical and emotional tests, as well as "rigorous simulations," said Norbert Kraft, chief medical officer for Mars One.
