Irish man off Mars One mission

An Irishman who was among 100 finalists for the Mars One mission has been kicked off the project after labelling it “hopelessly flawed”.

Dr Joseph Roche, an astrophysicist and assistant professor at Trinity College Dublin, spoke out against the multibillion-dollar programme’s “secretive” selection process and voiced concerns about final stage applicants being ranked on a points system which rewards those who raise the most money.

“My nightmare about it is that people continue to support it and give it money and attention — and it then gets to the point where it inevitably falls on its face,” he told Medium magazine.

“The main thing they’ve invested in is this selection process and if you compare it to traditional, other astronaut selection programmes then it comes up short.”

Dr Roche claimed reports that 200,000 people had applied to live the rest of their lives on Mars are inaccurate, saying the actual figure is 2,761.

The Dutch non-profit organisation behind the project wants to have a permanent human colony on Mars by 2025, but Dr Roche won’t be among the group as he has been booted off the mission.

“He’s not a contender any more for the specific reason because he broke the confidentiality,” said Dr Norbert Kraft, one of the specialists working on the project.

Speaking on RTÉ radio, Dr Kraft said the organisation cannot have applicants “who just go to the press”.

“We have to have trust between the applicants, they rely with their lives on them. So we cannot have people who break confidentiality. The trust is broken and when the trust is broken as you know the team never works,” he said.

“Do you think any of the 100 applicants want to work with him anymore?”

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