Mars One, the nonprofit organization that aims to establish a permanent colony on Mars starting from 2023, has announced that in the first two weeks since the opening of the search for volunteers more than 78,000 people have signed up to be part of the selection program to find the astronauts who should make a one-way trip to the red planet.

Mars One is an organization founded by Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp that in June 2012 announced its plan to colonize Mars. It’s an ambitious idea and also extremely expensive since just to send the first four astronauts to Mars the estimated cost is about $6 billion. In addition to the spaceship that would carry the settlers in fact they need to develop habitats, the transportation vehicles to travel on the planet and all the technologies that would allow the astronauts to survive.

The first expedition should be the most expensive while the subsequent settlers should find various infrastructure already ready so the subsequent trips should cost “only” $4 billion each. The joke about the astronomical costs is all too obvious.

The funds for this big plan should come from various sponsors but especially by the production of a great reality show that will follow all its steps, from the selection of the settlers to their long training until their landing on Mars. As with all reality shows, the audience will choose the winners though the candidates will be selected by a panel of experts from Mars One so that the settlers have all the skills required for the mission.

Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, the private company that has already made two official missions on behalf of NASA shipping cargo to the International Space Station and bringing back others to Earth, has expressed interest in the colonization of Mars. SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket and Dragon spacecraft, in the version that can carry astronauts, are the vehicles considered by Mars One fro the trips of the settlers to Mars.

Considering the fact that it would be a one-way trip, the enthusiasm of the candidates seems truly remarkable. The practical problems to solve, however, are many and often require new technological solutions so it’s really hard to say how many hopes there are for Mars One plan to be successful. It might just end up being a reality show on Earth: in that case let’s hope that at least it will be more decent than the ones we’re usually served up.

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