(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) A Filipino expatriate living in Oman is among the 1,058 candidates who have been cleared for the second round of selection for the Mars One mission. Thirty nine year old physician Dr Michael Theodore L Pias has been in Oman for a year now, currently assigned at a PDO site.
Communicating with Muscat Daily through e-mail, Dr Pias said he found about the Mars One mission on his Facebook page. ''Someone had posted a link to the site. That was in July or August last year. I realised that I had only a couple of days to meet the application deadline.''
In an e-mail to Muscat Daily, Norbert Kraft, chief medical officer of Mars One said, ''He fulfilled all the basic requirements: paid the application fee, sent his video, answered the demographics and questions such as: interests, self intro...''
Dr Pias said he never expected to clear the first round. ''I didn't think I'd pass the first round. But, if I meet all expectations, I would like to be out there on Mars not as a physician, but as an explorer. I believe most of the technical staff who will be advising the crew on running the colony will remain on Earth. They should allow us to stay connected to the Web.'' Dr Pias mentioned Internet, ancient history, technology, sci-fi and fantasy books, computer games and astronomy as his interests in his profile on the Mars One site.
Before getting a doctor's degree, Dr Pias had a varied career which included selling encyclopaedias.
''After this, I was a proof reader, then a police beat reporter for a newspaper for nearly a year. This was when I discontinued college temporarily. I got my medical licence in 2006 in the Philippines. I worked there for three years as a general physician before serving in Saudi Arabia for more than three years and now I am in Oman for the past year.''
Mars One received applications from 202,586 people from over 140 countries, wanting to be among the first human settlers on Mars. Kraft, a recipient of the 2013 NASA Group Achievement Award said, ''The 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 candida
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