A 32-year-old Vietnamese man has been selected as one of the final 100 candidates for a one-way ticket to Mars.
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Vu Xuan Linh of Thai Binh District has passed the second round of the selection process for Mars One, a Dutch nonprofit that hopes to launch a manned mission to the "Red Planet," reports Thanh Nien.
After passing an interview with the project’s Chief Medical Officer, Linh’s next task will be to undergo the rigors of permanent settlement on the Red Planet.
Linh, who studied and worked in the US and Singapore, told the paper that most of his family is not particularly excited about his potential galactic voyage.
“…now, my older sister is the only one who completely supports me," he said, adding that his wife hasn’t put her full support behind the aspiring astronaut.
Of the final 100 candidates, split evenly by gender, 39 are from the Americas, 31 are from Europe, 16 are from Asia, seven hail from Africa and seven are from Oceania.
While a meaningful endeavor, many scientists have questioned the program’s viability.
"Even ignoring the potential mismatch between the project income and its costs and questions about its longer-term viability, the Mars One proposal does not demonstrate a sufficiently deep understanding of the problems to give real confidence that the project would be able to meet its very ambitious schedule,” said Chris Welch, director of Masters Programs at the International Space University in an interview with the BBC.
Furthermore, the mission has faced ethical criticisms, as funding would primarily come from a reality TV show and other marketing schemes.
In January 2014, former German astronaut, Ulrich Walter, told Der Tagesspiegel, "They make their money with that [TV] show. They don't care what happens to those people in space... If my tax money were used for such a mission, I would organize a protest."
Either way, it’s going to be a while before the program becomes even close to a reality with the first manned flight scheduled for 2024.
