Apply Now for Your Ticket to Mars

Sorry, no return flights available
By Ruth Brown,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 22, 2013 7:11 PM CDT
Apply Now For Your Ticket to Mars
Mars photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope on the planet's closest approach to Earth in 60,000 years.   (AP Photo/NASA)

A Dutch company is looking for volunteers to fly to Mars in 2022. Just one catch: the ticket is one-way. Mars One announced its intentions to colonize the red planet last year, and is now accepting applications from everyday astronauts willing to give up the rest of their lives for the mission. Anyone over the age of 18 can apply (so long as they pay the $38 application fee) and so far more than 10,000 people have registered their interest, CNN reports. "Psychological skills will be the main selection criteria we will use," says Mars One co-founder Bas Lansdorp.

The mission will be part science experiment, part reality show, reports NPR. Lansdorp says he has consulted with the creator of Big Brother, and believes broadcast rights to the quest could help cover the $6 billion price tag of the ambitious journey. "It will stay interesting for a very, very long time," he says. "We are already receiving a lot of interest from [broadcasters]." (More Mars stories.)

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