Mars One Mission: 100 Final Candidates Selected

Mars is the next frontier for space exploration, following four decades of lacklustre progress on finding ways to get to the Red Planet, partly due to the lack of funding NASA have received since the Moon landing.

One group looking to be the first to the planet is Mars One, a not-for-profit organisation looking to create a reality TV show with 100 candidates, all willing to travel one-way to Mars.

The 100 candidates have been whittled down from over 200,000 applicants, and Mars One will lower that number to 40 for the actual space flight, meaning more than half will be sent home throughout the training.

39 of the 100 candidates come from the U.S., 31 come from Europe (including seven from the UK), 16 come from Asia, seven come from Australia and seven come from Africa.

Similar to normal reality shows, viewers will most likely vote for the people they want to stay, which may cause conflict between groups. Big Brother producer Endemol will host the reality TV show, and fund some of the mission to Mars.

Mars One is hoping that voting and advertising will make the bulk of the money for the Mars trip, which may cost over £4 billion with food and living expenses included.

Some scientists and space experts claim this is an impossible task, especially considering the atmosphere in Mars might still make it hard for humans to live, without slight terraforming of the temperature.

The final 40 candidates will take a one-way trip to Mars and the reality TV show may go on when they finally land on the planet. Creating sustainable food and energy will be the first mission, but it is not clear exactly what the end goal is for the Mars One space explorers.

Other organisations with more funding are preparing to put people on Mars by 2022, but Mars One believes it can be the first. Even if it risky, it at least shows aptitude for this sort of mission is still alive and well in the world.