Can you imagine living on Mars? Well, one hundred candidates from all over the world have made it one step closer to being a part of Mars One's exciting, but crazy mission.

 

Close-Up of Mars From the Hubble Space Telescope
(Photo by NASA/Getty Images)
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Mars One is a not-for-profit foundation that wants to have humans not only on Mars, but actually living there. They started their search for the right people to take on this challenge back in 2013. From that, they received over 200,000 interested applicants. Now, they have cut the list down to 100 - 50 men and 50 women. More cuts will be made, however.

 

According to NBC News,

The Mars One project plans to put on a reality-TV competition to select 24 prospective crew members for missions to Mars, starting as early as 2024. Winners would be expected to start up a permanent colony on the Red Planet.

 

There will be more rounds for the 100 candidates to go through, to drop the number down to 24. The next rounds will work on getting teams together that would be able to handle living on Mars - with actually training on a copy of what would be their 'Mars Outpost.' This round will see how well they can work as a team, especially when challenges arise.

 

Picture From the Mars Rover
(Photo by NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory/ Cornell University via Getty Images)
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Heading to Mars isn't going to be a cheap expedition, though. NBC reports,

Mars One estimates that it will need billions of dollars to conduct its Mars missions, including a robotic rover mission planned for launch in 2018. The money question is the biggest unknown right now, but last year an MIT study concluded that the venture's plan to send humans to Mars and keep them alive was "overly optimistic" on technical grounds.

 

Individuals who applied to be a part of this mission but were cut, will have another shot. A new application round will open up sometime this year, and they will be given the opportunity to reapply.

 

 

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