NC State student makes the cut for chance to go to Mars

Posted on: 7:39 pm, January 19, 2014, by Web Staff, updated on: 07:50pm, January 19, 2014

(Mars One via CNN)

RALEIGH, N.C. A 23-year-old North Carolina State student is among 1,000 people to make the cut at a possible chance to go to Mars.

The Raleigh News & Observer reported that Charles Parrish II could be hurtling toward Mars in 10 years if he makes it to the final round.

Parrish submitted an application to the Dutch nonprofit Mars One, which last month whittled 200,000 aspiring Martians down to a pool of 1,000.

The Mars One project wants to colonize the red planet, beginning in 2022. There are financial and practical questions about this venture that havent been clarified.

Theres still a physical to pass and an interview to ace. The first crew launching in 2024 will have only four people.

Officials said the Mars One mission will cost $6 billion for the first crew. The idea is for it to be funded by sponsors and media that will pay for broadcasting rights of shows and movies documenting everything from the astronauts training on Earth to their deployment and colonization of Mars.

Out of the applicants, Mars One said it will select a multicontinental group of 40 astronauts this year. Four of them two men and two women are set to leave for Mars in September 2022, landing in April 2023.

Another multicontinental group of four will be deployed two years later, according to the Mars One plan. None of them will return to Earth.

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NC State student makes the cut for chance to go to Mars