Turks fail to score one-way ticket to Mars for 2024 expedition

Razi Canikligil NEW YORK

The dream of living on the Red Planet has come to naught for Turks – at least for the near future.

“Mars One,” a project that aims to put a permanent human settlement on Mars, has chosen 100 people in a third round of voting from an initial 202,586 applicants, but none of the 11 Turks who had originally applied for a one-way ticket to the Red Planet succeeded in making the cut.

The 100 will be further whittled down to 24 following a series of difficult training sessions and tests.

Starting in 2024, every two years, groups of four people will embark on a seven-month journey to Mars from which there will be no return.

While the 11 Turkish adventurers could not make it to the list, 39 of the selected 100 people were from the Americas, 31 from Europe, 16 from Asia, and seven each from Africa and Australia.

But while it might not be the Red Planet, there’s still hope for Turks dreaming of going to space. For around $100,000, perspective spacemen and women can buy a ticket – a round trip this time – to space and “stare into space” for about an hour. A Turkish travel company offers individuals willing to pay a space tour, during which travelers can look down on earth from an outer perspective, examine the darkness of the emptiness or even take a selfie with space in the background.

If you don’t have that much money or believe you’ve got to hold on to your savings for a rainy day, then let’s hope we’ll live long enough to enjoy an expedition to Mars at an affordable cost.