More than 40,000 apply for one-way ticket to Mars

It seems that there has been huge interest in signing up to sampling life on Mars in ten years, even though it is a one way ticket.

By Declan Whooley

Mars One — a plan to colonise Mars in stages, with the first humans arriving in 2023, won't begin accepting 60-second video applications until July, but already more than 40,000 applications have applied for the unique journey.

Heading off to the Red Planet for good wouldn’t be our cup of tea, but it has spiked the interest right across the globe. Mars One will largely be financed through an application fee of up to $25 and a global reality TV show that will help vet the candidates.

Dutch physicist Gerard Hooft told the New Scientist magazine that the interest levels so far have surpassed what they had anticipated.

“This is many more than I had imagined, although some psychologists and cultural anthropologists had apparently predicted there would be at least a million candidates,” he said.

Here is a video of the expected mission.