It's gonna be plenty tough to raise $6billion from $38 application fees ~ but I can think of several people whose application fees I'd be willing to pay ~ ~ emphasis/bolding below is mine ~ Sooz

Dutch reality show seeks one-way astronauts for Mars
By Agence France-Presse
Monday, April 22, 2013 17:33 EDT

Are you crazy enough to sign up for a one-way trip to Mars? Applications are now being accepted by the makers of a Dutch reality show that says it will deliver the first humans to the Red Planet in 10 years.

The main requirements are strong health, good people and survival skills, being 18 or older, and having a reasonable grasp of the English language.

The non-profit company, called “Mars One,” aims to land its first four astronauts in 2023 for a televised reality show that would follow the exploits of the first humans to attempt to establish a colony on Mars.

A range of potential pitfalls might prevent the project from becoming a reality, including the inability to return to Earth, the small living quarters and the lack of food and water on Mars.

Assuming of course, that radiation endured during the trip is not lethal, and that any spacecraft is able to negotiate a volatile landing onto the harsh Martian landscape.

Nevertheless, Mars One founder Bas Lansdorp told a New York press conference on Monday that organizers had received 10,000 messages from prospective applicants in over 100 different countries in the past year.

In all Mars One is seeking six groups of four people each. A new quartet would make the seven-month journey every two years after the first crew departs in 2022.

Lansdorp said the plan is to use technology and equipment from those who have already made it, and not to start from scratch. A series of rovers would be sent to Mars first before the human mission would be attempted.

The overall cost for the first manned mission is about six billion dollars, he said.

“It sounds like a lot of money. And actually it is a lot of money. But imagine what will happen when the first people land on Mars. Literally everybody on the globe will want to see it,” Lansdorp said.

The project has garnered plenty of skeptics but is backed by Dutch Nobel laureate Gerard‘t Hooft, who won the 1999 prize for physics.

The world’s space agencies have only managed to send unmanned robotic rovers to Mars so far, the latest being NASA’s $2.5 billion Curiosity rover which touched down in August 2012.

Key attributes for applicants, according to Mars One medical director Norbert Kraft, are being adaptable, resilient, creative and having empathy.

“Can you really work with other people from other countries, as a team?” he asked.

Many questions remain about how the astronauts would survive on a planet with a temperature of minus 55 degrees C (minus 67 F) and whose atmosphere consists mainly of carbon dioxide.

But the company’s representatives insisted that their mission is ethically sound.

“The long term aim is to have a lasting colony,” said Hooft. “This expansion will not be easy,” he added. “How soon that will be accomplished is anyone’s guess.”

The deadline for the first round of online applications is August 31. The application fee differs by country; from the United States it costs $38.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/22/dutch-reality-show-seeks-one-way-astronauts-for-mars/

I nominate Stephen Harper.

Actually... sign me up. I want off this rock.

Of course, no one really expects to go to Mars. The TV show will be about the supposed training and preparation, and human drama surrounding all that. The producers know it, the participants know it, and the audience knows it.

And once they get there, they're on their own. Death watch, anyone?

if i were terminally ill, i would go.

If you weren't when you started, you soon would be.
Physically or mentally.

I easily admit I do NOT understand the mindset of the 200,000+ people who have applied for this journey ~ but in the past few months, I've added to my list of "several people whose application fees I'd be willing to pay" ~ ~ Sooz

Space cadets line up for one-way Mars trip
By Agence France-Presse
Monday, September 9, 2013 20:32 EDT

More than 200,000 people from 140 countries have applied to go to Mars and never return, the group behind an ambitious venture to colonize the inhospitable red planet said Monday.

Bas Lansdorp, a Dutch engineer and entrepreneur, plans to establish a permanent base on Mars in a mission he hopes will take off in 2022 if he can find the necessary $6 billion.

One in four of the 202,586 applicants for the one-way trip are Americans, said Mars One, the non-profit group which initiated its hunt for “would-be Mars settlers” in April.

There are also hopefuls from India (10 percent), China (six percent) and Brazil (five percent), among other countries, it said.

By 2015, Mars One expects put up to 10 four-member teams through intensive training, with the first of those teams reaching to Mars in 2023 on a high-risk journey that would take seven months to complete.

If they survive the trip, the human Martians will have to deal with minus 55 degrees C (minus 67 F) temperatures in a desert-like atmosphere that consists mainly of carbon dioxide.

They’ll also have to consent to being observed back on Earth full-time as stars of a reality TV show that would help cover expenses.

The project has the support of Gerard ‘t Hooft, the Dutch joint winner of the Nobel prize for physics in 1999.

“The long term aim is to have a lasting colony,” said ‘t Hooft in New York in April. “This expansion will not be easy. How soon that will be accomplished is anyone’s guess.”

Space agencies including NASA have expressed skepticism about the viability of Lansdorp’s plan, saying the technology to establish a human colony on Mars does not exist.

Mars One says on its website that the mission is a decade-long endeavor, with funding intended to come from the global audience of an interactive, televised broadcast of every aspect of the mission.

So far, there have only been unmanned missions to Mars undertaken by NASA, which has signaled its intent to send astronauts there within 20 years.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/09/space-cadets-line-up-for-one-way-mars-trip/

There are three prime candidates visiting Egypt.