Grady Bolding, the Great Bend man attempting to become one of the first colonists on Mars, expects the number of finalists to drop from 705 to 50 by the end of the year.
Bolding, 27, was among more than 200,000 people who applied to become an astronaut with the Mars One, a Netherlands-based non-profit organization that intends to begin sending people to Mars by 2024. All of those applicants knew it would be a one-way trip.
In the next month, Bolding and other finalists will face individual interviews, conducted online via Skype by the Mars One selection committee. “Either it continues here or it ends here,” Bolding said of the upcoming interviews.
The chosen candidates will go through years of training that includes spending months out of each year in isolated living quarters that simulate life on Mars. Bolding said one simulation plant might be set up in the arctic, where the coldest day is comparable to the warmest day on Mars.
While some scientists are skeptical that colonists will be able to survive on Mars, the mission has been designed using existing technology. The first pods for a future base will be shipped via unmanned flights to Mars starting in 2018. Starting in 2024, crews of four could start going to the Red Planet every two years. The project will be funded by donations and by televising its mission.
In a Mars One statement, Chief Medical Officer Norbert Kraft, MD, said the next interviews will give the selection committee a better understanding of the candidates who aspire to take  such a daring trip. “They will have to show their knowledge, intelligence, adaptability and personality.”
Bolding is a Great Bend High School graduate who has returned here after earning a Bachelor of Science degree in theater from Kansas State University. He works part-time at Great Bend’s Brit Spaugh Zoo, where he greets people as they enter the Raptor Center.
“It’s not every day you get an opportunity to go to another planet,” Bolding said in his application video., created with help from the Marketing Department at Barton Community College. It can be seen online at www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtug4_K8ZYE. He also passed a physical.
Since he’s single, Bolding said he doesn’t worry about the prospect of never returning if he’s selected to go to Mars. The thought of having a chance and NOT taking it would be harder to live with.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” he said. “If I don’t do it, I won’t know what happens.”