Say, would you like to die alone on an uninhabitable planet millions of miles from home away from everyone you have ever known and loved? If your answer was "Heck yeah I do," you may be one of the more than 200,000 people who have applied to die on Mars.
You may recall that a Dutch entrepreneur is launching Mars One, a company that seeks to put astronauts on Mars by 2023 and is currently taking applications for spots on the team. Our pals at Gawker reported in May that some 78,000 people had applied for the trip, which does not include a return flight.
National Geographic reports now that applications have rocketed (sorry) all the way up to 202,586 people from 140 countries, predominantly the U.S., China and India. That's a lot of people who want to die on another planet.
Here's what happens next:
Now that the first of a four-round selection process ended on August 31, a Mars One committee will take the next few months to whittle down the number of applicants (yet-to-be-determined) who will be notified by the end of this year.
The plan eventually is to have the candidates undergo mental and physical challenges. Teams from different regions will compete against each other until only 24 to 40 candidates with the “right stuff” are left standing in 2015.
The long-term vision is to establish a thriving, permanent human colony on the Red Planet with new missions running through the middle of this century.
So who's going to send them up by 2023? Right now, the plan is for SpaceX to do it. Thanks for murdering everyone for science, Elon!
Photo credit NASA
Hat tip to Muffin!