Mars One, a project trying to colonize Mars, has received more than 100,000 applications for a one-way trip to the red planet, CNN reported.
The project plans on launching in 2022 despite numerous questions and practical obstacles. Some 30,000 Americans have applied to be one of the first few to populate Mars, despite these questions.
"There is also a very large number of people who are still working on their profile, so either they have decided not to pay the application fee, or they are still making their video or they're still filling out the questionnaire or their resume," Bas Lansdorp, Mars One CEO and co-founder. "So the people that you can see online are only the ones that have finished and who have set their profiles as public."
The first trip for the Mars One mission will cost $6 billion and will take a multicontinental group of people and supplies based on weight, not sheer numbers. Lansdorp said 40 astronauts will be selected later this year and four of them (two men and two women) will leave for Mars in Sept. 2022 and arrive for good on Mars in April 2023.
The astronauts will begin an eight-year training process that will teach them to grow vegetables in a confined space, as well as address serious and routine medical procedures.
"What we want to do is tell the story to the world," Lansdorp said. "When humans go to Mars, when they settle on Mars and build a new Earth, a new planet. This is one of the most exciting things that ever happened, and we want to share the story with the entire world."
Applicants must be at least 18 years old and must also pay a fee based on nationality. For Americans, the fee is $38, but for Mexicans, the fee is $15. Lansdorp said he based the price on the gross domestic product per capita.
"We wanted it to be high enough for people to have to really think about it and low enough for anyone to be able to afford it," Lansdorp said.
Once on Mars, the people will not be bringing much water from Earth. Lansdorp said the water on Mars would be filtered from the soil and will also be used to manufacture oxygen and hydrogen.
We will evaporate it and condense it back into its liquid state," he said. "From the water we can make hydrogen and oxygen, and we will use the oxygen for a breathing atmosphere inside the habitat. This will be prepared by the rovers autonomously before the humans arrive."
The biggest concern for the Mars One mission is whether or not the people can actually live the rest of their lives on the red planet. Because of NASA's radiation standards, the maximum amount of time is about 500 days.
"Anywhere from about 300 days to about 360 days for the solar minimum activity. For solar maximum, in ranges anywhere from about 275 days to 500 days," said Eddie Semones, NASA spaceflight radiation officer.
The dangers that surround an excess of radiation exposure is cancer, death and damage to cell's DNA.
"The risks of space travel in general are already very high, so radiation is really not our biggest concern," Lansdorp said.
He said they plan to overcome basic and practical obstacles in the time leading up to the launch, insisting Mars will be populated by humans in 2023.
