The list of the potential first humans to walk on Mars has been narrowed down to 100, 50 women and 50 men.
The idea was first announced in 2012, as Mars One began its online applications process – trying to find the first humans to colonize and eventually die on our red neighbor. It's the stuff of science fiction, with the promise of a reality show-style competition between the potential candidates leading up to the expedition (think Hunger Games meets Interstellar ).
Perhaps the craziest part of the whole thing is that the people behind Mars One claim to be 100 percent serious. That's right, they claim that in 2025 the first four humans will embark on a voyage across space to a new destination that they will call home, never to return.
They will all die on Mars with no chance or hope of ever returning to earth. At least that is what Mars One is pitching – and avidly defending.
But could it all just be one big scam? Or maybe a false dream that just isn't ready to be realized any time soon?
A recent feature about the project posted on Medium raised some serious questions about the reality behind the would-be reality show. The relatively low cost ($6 billion) has raised eyebrows as well as numerous technical aspects of the whole endeavor. Further investigation also revealed some of the partners that Mars One claims to be working with may not be quite as closely associated with the project as we were initially lead to believe.
Regardless of these concerns and the basic absurdity of the overall project (I mean really, a reality show competition to get to Mars?!) more than 200,000 people were initially reported to have applied ... including the author of this post. After a large scale elimination, that left only a fraction of applicants in the race, the just-released list of 100 lucky (or unfortunate, depending how you look at it) individuals, who were selected after conducting personal online interviews.
Four MENA region individuals made the cut as well. According to the list – which includes brief bios for each candidate – one Egyptian, one Iraqi and two Iranians are still in the race to the Red Planet. Overall, the list consists of 39 people from the Americas, 31 from Europe, 16 from Asia, seven from Africa and seven from Oceania.
So what drives these 100 people to brave all odds and accept the idea of never seeing their families or friends ever again, all for the chance to walk on Mars? Perhaps they are all just a little bit crazy or maybe a little courageous as well, depending on your perspective. But with the creators of the Big Brother reality show reportedly involved with the project, the whole thing seems to be more on the crazy versus scientific side of things.
But then again, maybe I'm just feeling a bit annoyed and jealous that I actually didn't fill out the application.