Five Brits among shortlist of 100 for one-way trip to Mars

Five candidates are shortlisted for the privately funded mission although there are doubts that the project will push through.

16:52 17 February 2015

Five Brits have been chosen from more than 200,000 applicants for one-way trip to Mars, a privately-funded mission that is scheduled to blast off in 2024.

The project’s organiser, Dutch entrepreneur Bars Lansdorp, said that the participants will grow their own food and be protected from radiation by a “hollow water tank.”

Mr Lansdorp said: "The brightest young minds of our planet are being invited to participate in Mars One's first Mars lander. We do this to inspire students to believe that anything is possible."

However, there are doubts that the mission will ever get off the ground. Some critics said that the mission is a publicity stunt to raise revenue for a reality television series produced by Big Brother producer Endemol.

Australian journalist Elmo Keep told Sky News: "200,000 people did not apply; 2,071 paid the registration fee.

"According to the dozens of people I interviewed over the course of a year for the story, there is scant-to-no proof Mars One has any capability to make it real."

A Mars One statement released earlier said: "Endemol-owned Darlow Smithson Productions (DSP) will exclusively follow the selection and training of the world's first astronauts to Mars."