Mars One narrows applicant pool to 100 potential dead Martians

Science Focus

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Will Australian teenager Teah survive the "Mars 100" round and find herself on a one-way rocket to the red planet? Tune in to find out.

Mars One

On Tuesday, the Mars One foundation took one small step closer to its mission of sending humans to Mars by announcing the "Mars 100," a group of 100 men and women who've moved on from the initial applicant pool of thousands. The private nonprofit reached that number, divided evenly between men and women, after narrowing down from last year's list of 705 hopefuls—all of whom paid an entry fee of roughly $38 to sign up for what's been clearly advertised as a one-way trip to their deaths.

The remaining 100 (which, if you're wondering, does not include the Ars forums' own Quisquis) will now be subjected to "group challenges that demonstrate their suitability to become one of the first humans on Mars, and will be interviewed," according to Mars One's website. The shape of those group challenges has not been clarified, but we don't expect much in the way of intensity, considering that a future selection round will contain the "first short-term training in a copy of the Mars outpost."

Whatever those challenges may be, they "could be aired" either on TV networks or online, which would finally fulfill the reality-TV angle that has long hovered over the project thanks to its founder Bas Lansdorp's ties to TV series Big Brother. As such, the roster of 100 contains some curious choices who seem better suited for reality TV than grueling outer-space missions, including squeaky-voiced Australian teen Teah, folk-loving "joke" teller Dan, and "wack" South African bushwhacker Edwin.

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