They come from all over the world but these 100,000 people all have one thing in common - they want to give up life on Earth for a one-way ticket to Mars. Dutch company Mars One said that they were flooded with applications from people hoping to be the first to start a colony on the Red Planet.
And, oh yeah, it's all going to be filmed for a reality TV show. Mars One said it will select four candidates to make the initial flight to Mars in 2022. They plan to send another four would-be astronauts to Mars a few years later to help populate the new colony.
Some of the candidates posted videos to the project's website, but they're not the only ones who have applied, said Bas Lansdorp, Mars One CEO and co-founder.
"There is also a very large number of people who are still working on their profile, so either they have decided not to pay the application fee, or they are still making their video or they're still filling out the questionnaire or their resume. So the people that you can see online are only the ones that have finished and who have set their profiles as public," Lansdorp said.
Lansdorp said applicants are required to pay a small fee to apply. For Americans, it's $38.
"We wanted it to be high enough for people to have to really think about it and low enough for anyone to be able to afford it," Lansdorp said.
The initial mission to Mars is expected to cost around $6 billion, which Mars One says it hopes to raise through sponsors and broadcast rights to their reality show.
GlobalPost