Purdue student who eyed 1-way trip to Mars misses cut

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) – A Purdue University student says he isn’t giving up on a trip to Mars even though he didn’t make the final cut for a one-way mission to the planet.

Aerospace engineering graduate student Max Fagan was one of 10,000 people from around the world who submitted a completed application for the Mars One mission sponsored by a nonprofit in the Netherlands.

The agency aims to send four people to Mars by 2024 in hopes of establishing the first human settlement there. The group says other teams would take part every two years.

Fagan tells WISH-TV sister station WLFI-TV that since he didn’t make the final cut of 100 applicants, he’ll return to his goal of finishing his degree and becoming an astronaut.