A Romanian who lives in Canada is among the 100 candidates who qualified for the third selection round for the Mars One space mission that aims to take the first human crew to Mars.

Andreea, a 34-year old Romanian-Canadian citizen, is now one step closer to becoming one of the first humans on Mars. She was selected out of 202,586 applicants.

The 100 candidates were chosen from a pool of 660 candidates after participating in personal online interviews with Norbert Kraft, who is the project’s Chief Medical Officer. Six Romanians were among them, but only one made it to the next selection round.

“We were impressed with how many strong candidates participated in the interview round, which made it a very difficult selection,” said Dr. Norbert Kraft.

There are 50 men and 50 women who qualified for the third round. They come from all around the world, namely 39 from the Americas, 31 from Europe, 16 from Asia, 7 from Africa, and 7 from Oceania.

The following selection rounds will focus on composing teams that can endure all the hardships of a permanent settlement on Mars. The candidates will receive their first shot at training in the copy of the Mars Outpost on Earth and will demonstrate their suitability to perform well in a team.

Mars One is a non-profit foundation that aims to establish permanent human life on Mars. Mars One plans to send the first human crew to Mars in 2024. The first unmanned mission will fly to Mars in 2018.

Read more about Andreea and the other 99 candidates here.

Find out more about the Mars One project here.

editor@romania-insider.com