"4, 3, 2, 1
Earth below us, drifting, falling
Floating, weightless, calling, calling, home..."
Peter Schilling - Major Tom (Coming Home)
Earth below us, drifting, falling
Floating, weightless, calling, calling, home..."
Peter Schilling - Major Tom (Coming Home)
The ambitious Dutch-based space program Mars One has selected 100 viable candidates out of a pool of over 200,000 applicants to settle a space colony on our celestial neighbor, Mars.
Out of the 100 candidates, a battery of physical and psychological tests over the next several years will eventually whittle the number down to an elite group of 24 strong-minded and able-bodied astronauts who hope to rocket off to the Red Planet within the next decade.
The non-profit group is hoping to use current (and future) technology to achieve their lofty goal of placing a human colony on Mars, a feat not yet accomplished by NASA or the European or Russian space programs. A human colony on the planet has long been the goal of NASA, but the logistics and cost of such a program have proven prohibitive over the years. Another hang-up for such an adventure: It would most certainly be a one-way ticket to Mars, with virtually no possibility of the brave astronauts ever returning to Earth once there.
The trip to Mars would last a grueling seven months, with a high likelihood that several passengers would die en route. A recent study from prestigious MIT concluded that a human colony on Mars might survive for approximately 68 days in the extremely harsh conditions of the planet before seeing the first fatalities. More would likely follow.
The program is hopeful to launch the first in a series of missions to Mars by the year 2024. (For a highly riveting account of what a mission to the planet would be like, check out Andy Weir's stunning new science-fiction bestseller, The Martian.)
Out of the 100 candidates, a battery of physical and psychological tests over the next several years will eventually whittle the number down to an elite group of 24 strong-minded and able-bodied astronauts who hope to rocket off to the Red Planet within the next decade.
The non-profit group is hoping to use current (and future) technology to achieve their lofty goal of placing a human colony on Mars, a feat not yet accomplished by NASA or the European or Russian space programs. A human colony on the planet has long been the goal of NASA, but the logistics and cost of such a program have proven prohibitive over the years. Another hang-up for such an adventure: It would most certainly be a one-way ticket to Mars, with virtually no possibility of the brave astronauts ever returning to Earth once there.
The trip to Mars would last a grueling seven months, with a high likelihood that several passengers would die en route. A recent study from prestigious MIT concluded that a human colony on Mars might survive for approximately 68 days in the extremely harsh conditions of the planet before seeing the first fatalities. More would likely follow.
The program is hopeful to launch the first in a series of missions to Mars by the year 2024. (For a highly riveting account of what a mission to the planet would be like, check out Andy Weir's stunning new science-fiction bestseller, The Martian.)