(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Dr Michael Theodore L Pias, the 31 year old Filipino expatriate physician in Oman who had enrolled for the Mars One project, is now among the 705 hopefuls moving into the programme's astronaut selection process.
Mars One announced that 353 hopefuls from around the world have been eliminated during tests.
The 705 who remain will be interviewed by the Mars One selection committee.
In December 2013, Mars One announced the selection of 1,058 candidates from the original pool of over 200,000 applicants after which they asked them to complete two tasks by March 2014. They were asked to provide a medical statement of health from their physician and open their online Mars One applicant profile to the public.
The 705 - 418 men and 287 women - who successfully completed both tasks will be invited for a personal interview.
Norbert Kraft, chief medical officer of Mars One was quoted in a statement,
''Three hundred and fifty three candidates were dropped from the group due to personal and medical reasons. What really left an impression on us is the fact that the medical tests turned out to have a major impact on the candidates' lives. Some of them found out that they needed to undergo an operation and needed medical attention, others were found with some malignant form of cancer that otherwise would not have been detected in such an early stage.''
He however added, ''We're incredibly excited to start the next phase of round two. In this round we will try to understand our candidates better. They will have to show their knowledge, intelligence, adaptability and personality.
''After the interview round, we will further filter the group and form several teams. These teams of prospective Mars settlers will be put through an extensive training programme. Training to go to Mars will be their full time job,'' Kraft added.
Teams and individuals will be eliminated during training period also if they are not found suitable for the mission.
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