British studentMaggie Lieu , who said that she wanted to be the first to give birthing on Mars , has stepped down from the race to Mars on theMars Onemission … if it ’s really pass off , that is .
Allegedly arriving in 2026 , manned missions from Earth hope to establish a settlement of the great unwashed on the Red Planet – and it ’s a one - agency ticket only .
However , the legitimacy of Mars One has been called into question ever since the mission was announced . For instance , there have beenfinancial concernsfrom Nobel Laureate and Mars One ambassadorGerard ' t Hooft : " It will take quite a flake longer and be quite a bit more expensive . When they first ask me to be involve , I secern them ' you have to put a zero after everything . ' "
And as former NASA researcher Joseph Roche explained toMedium : " When you join the ‘ Mars One Community , ’ which happens automatically if you applied as a candidate , they start give you stop . You get detail for getting through each round of the survival of the fittest appendage ( but just an arbitrary phone number of points , not anything to do with ranking ) , and then the only way to get more points is to buy product from Mars One or to donate money to them . "
Currently studying at the University of Birmingham , England , Lieu made her announcement viaTwitter . Although she felt “ really honour ” to have been choose for the supposed intergalactic mission to Mars , she has “ a big paper publishing shortly ” and has nobly chosen to spend her time more fruitfully end up her PhD subject instead .
You should probably know that I have made the unmanageable decision to withdraw from the Mars One program . Still I wish them the best of hazard
— Maggie Lieu ( @Space_Mog)June 12 , 2015
The astrophysics postgraduate was purported to have been chosen from over 200,000 applier , which may have actually only been ameasly 2,761 applicants . All hope to participate in the $ 5.5 billion ( £ 3.5 billion ) military mission , Lieu was on the shortlist of 100 likely rocketeers , which will eventually be honed down to 40 people on the mission to Mars .
But fear not , British space partisan ! There are still four Brits in the running for the Mars charge . Hannah Earnshaw , Ryan MacDonald , Alison Rigby and Clare Weedon could be among the lucky few leaving Earth every two years to make the Red Planet their new eternally home base , if it all does n’t sour out to be just one monumental PR stunt .
