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Dutch reality show seeks one-way astronauts for Mars




The 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.

Already, the organizers have received "10,000 emails from more than 100 different countries from people who are interested in joining us for this mission," said founder Bas Landsdorp at a press conference in a New York hotel.

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

The cost for the first mission is about six billion dollars.


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.

Major drawbacks to the proposed mission include the inability to return to Earth, the small living quarters and the lack of food on the dry planet. That is, if the radiation endured during the trip is not lethal, and if the volatile landing goes according to plan.




But the company's representatives insisted that they believe they are within ethical guidelines by pursuing their mission.

"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 today."