"Adios, Planet Earth!" Mars One Closing in on 100,000 Volunteers for One-way Mission (VIDEO)

 

            

“Every passing hour brings the Solar System forty three thousand miles closer to Globular Cluster M13 in Hercules — and still there are some misfits who insist that there is no such thing as progress.” So wrote Kurt Vonnegut in his novel The Sirens of Titan, about a wealthy American who journeys to Mars. Here's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change your life and search for Vonnegut's chrono-synclastic infundibulum --"those places ... where all the different kinds of truths fit together."

Mars One says it has received applications from more than 78,000 people in more than 120 countries for the Mars One astronaut selection program, in hopes of becoming a Mars settler in 2023. Mars One will continue to receive online applications until August 31, 2013. From all the applicants in Round 1, regional reviewers will select around 50–100 candidates for Round 2 in each of the 300 geographic regions in the world that Mars One has identified.

After four rounds, ending in 2015; Mars One will employ 28–40 candidates, who will train for around 7 years. Finally an audience vote will elect one of groups in training to be the envoys of humanity to Mars.

Most applications so far have come from the U.S. (17324), followed by China (10241), United Kingdom (3581), Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Argentina and India. The most popular candidate (for site visitors) so far is Anders from Sweden, a single, science-fiction fan ), and the highest-rated by visitors are Rickard (also from Sweden) and Arteum (from Russia).

“With 78,000 applications in two weeks, this is turning out to be the most desired job in history, said Bas Lansdorp, Mars One Co-Founder and CEO. “These numbers put us right on track for our goal of half a million applicants.”

As part of the application every applicant is required to explain his/her motivation behind their decision go to Mars in a one-minute video. Many applicants are choosing to publish this video on the Mars One website.

“Applicants we have received come from a very wide range of personalities, professions and ages,” said Dr. Norbert Kraft, Mars One Chief Medical Officer. “This is significant because what we are looking for is not restricted to a particular background. From Round 1 we will take forward the most committed, creative, resilient and motivated applicants.”

 

            

The Daily Galaxy via Mars One 

Comments

[Palty Shields II]

How do I qualify. Id love to go. And is it okay to bring people you love who want to come, since it is one way?

[Lee]

Mars 1
A 4 year trip through space with the solar electric ion drive would result in Mars colonists being jello people when they finally get there, hence the reason for the one way trip because return is unsurvivable. A propulsion system with a fusion generated 1 G thrust and 1 G brake capability would allow your astronauts to get to Mars in weeks instead of years and would maintain their physical integrity so they could come home. This would means that a person could actually do some work when they get there and not be a useless blob of flesh.
Some very smart people have figured out a long time ago that before a mars mission is feasible the industrial capacity must first be built on the moon and then launched from there.

[Lee]

How do you keep high technology from the masses when it comes to manned space travel to the other planets in the solar system? You can't.
Fusion is about to expand the significance of human development in the universe and no one can stop it.

[Palty]

Thats good to know, but it still doesnt answer the question i asked.

[Ted]

What exactly are the requirements to be qualified to this one way trip?