(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Mars One, the ambitious venture hoping to establish a human settlement on Mars, has narrowed its applicant pool by 99.5 per cent. From across the globe, 1,058 hopefuls from the 200,000 applicants, have been selected as candidates to begin human life on Mars in 2025. None of the 45 Omani applicants made the cut. But there is still hope for them and the new applicants from the sultanate who share the dream of doing the unthinkable.
Bas Lansdor, Mars One co-founder and CEO, in an e-mailed reply to Muscat Daily said, ''There will be more application rounds coming, and all current Omani applicants - and new ones - are very much invited to participate.''
For those who didn't make it, he narrated the case of US astronaut Clayton Anderson who was rejected by NASA for its astronaut training programme 15 times, yet in 2007 he boarded the Space Shuttle Atlantis for a trip to the International Space Station. ''He proved anything can happen and no door is ever completely closed.''
On December 30, 2013, Mars One announced the selection of the candidates from the applicant pool of over 200,000 hoping to establish human life on Martian soil. Lansdor described the remaining 1,058 candidates as the first tangible glimpse into what the new human settlement will truly look like.
He said, ''We're extremely appreciative and impressed with the sheer number of people who submitted their applications. However, the challenge with 200,000 applicants is separating those who we feel are physically and mentally adept to become human ambassadors on Mars from those who are obviously taking the mission much less seriously.''
All applicants were notified via e-mail of their application status. For the applicants who were not selected in this round, there is still a chance they could reapply at a later date, which has not yet been determined.
Norbert Kraft, chief medical officer of Mars One and recipient of the 2013 NASA Group Achievement Award, said, ''The next several selection phases in 2014 and 2015 will include rigorous simulations, many in team settings, with focus on testing the physical and emotional capabilities of our remaining candidates. We expect to begin understanding what is motivating our candidates to take this giant leap for humankind. This is where it really gets exciting for Mars One, our applicants, and the communities they're a part of.''
In the shortlist, 55 per cent of the new applicant pool is male and 45 per cent is female; 43 per cent of applicants come from the Americas, 27 per cent from Europe, 21 per cent from Asia, five per cent from Africa, and four per cent from Oceania. Thirty five per cent of potential Martians are younger than 25, about 65 per cent are between the ages of 26 and 55, and two per cent are older than 56 years.
This announcement comes on the heels of a wild finish to 2013 for Mars One. On December 10, Mars One launched its first ever crowd-funding campaign, focused on bringing funds and attention to the first mission, an unmanned trip to Mars scheduled for 2018. On the same day as the crowd-funding campaign launch, Mars One announced in Washington DC, agreements with aerospace titan Lockheed Martin and the world's leading small satellite company Surrey Satellite Technology to develop plans for the 2018 missi
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