If all goes according to the nonprofit’s plan, 100 people will jet off to Mars in 2024. Pictured is a spacecraft launched from a NASA facility, but NASA won’t take part in Mars One’s mission. (Getty Images)
If this is the first you’re hearing of a one-way trip to Mars, check out our story on the organization and the people who signed up to die on Mars:
[Read: On one hand, they could be the first humans to set foot on another planet. On the other, they'll die there.]
This round of eliminations was made after Norbert Kraft, Mars One’s chief medical officer, interviewed 660 candidates who said they were ready to leave everything behind to venture to Mars.
The applications were open to anyone over age 18, because the organization believes its greatest need is not to find the smartest or most-skilled people, but rather the people most dedicated to the cause.
Even the astronauts on the International Space Station switch out every couple of months and go back home to family,” Kraft said in an interview with The Post in January. “In our case, the astronauts will live together in a group for the rest of their lives.”
Of the 50 men and 50 women selected for the next cut, 38 reside in the U.S. The next-most represented countries are Canada and Australia, both with seven. Two of the candidates were 18 when they applied in 2013; the oldest, Reginald George Foulds of Toronto, was 60.
