MIT study claims 'Mars One' mission passengers could die of starvation

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Mars One is a nonprofit that has plans to put humans on Mars by 2025, but doctoral students at MIT believe the current plans could put the colonists at risk of starving to death.

The students used public information to simulate the mission and found that under the current plan, which calls for growing crops inside, it will be difficult to grow enough food for the colony while maintaining safe oxygen levels.

"Our habitation simulations revealed that crop growth, if large enough to provide 100% of the settlement's food, will produce unsafe oxygen levels in the habitat. As a result, some form of oxygen removal system is required -- a technology that has not yet been developed for spaceflight," the study says.

Over 200,000 people applied to be part of the one-way mission to Mars, but only 25 to 40 people will be chosen for the mission. The organization plans to produce a reality TV show that will document the lives of the first people to ever go to the planet. They plan to launch an unmanned mission to the planet, in collaboration with Lockheed Martin, by 2017.