nyulocal.com

Greetings Wondergressivers! Are you tired of blue skies, green grass, and sunny days? Do you wish to explore the Final Frontier? Maybe red is a much more desired color for you? Or maybe you have simply conquered Mt. Everest and want to aspire to higher, more challenging heights; three times higher to be exact!  Well, for all you daredevils, adventure seekers, space cowboys, and solo yolo’s, you are now able to apply to colonize that big, red, desert brother of ours, Mars.

All it takes is an application and a short video sent to Mars One and you will become one of already 78,000 (and counting) applicants from which 4 will be chosen to pioneer the first colony on Mars! Oh, and of course a $38 fee which is charged to all American applicants; other countries are stuck more or less depending on their wealth. We may not even need that warp drive to be completely developed before we start colonizing other planets! Isn’t it all oh so exciting?

The voyage is set to take place in 2023 and will cost roughly 6 billion dollars. Anyone with zero technical skill that is over the age of 18, with no specific qualifications, can apply and be chosen for the voyage. But how will all of this be payed for? Well, it seems it will all be one big to do on television once a select group of “candidates” are chosen by 2015. These 20-40 people will then be trained for 7 years and whittled down to roughly 4 through a series of television events and audience votes.

As exciting as it all sounds, it is a little disappointing that we have to rely on a televised popularity contest as a selection process for our Mars colony. It is inspiring, however, to hear that there is such a widespread reception of the idea of colonizing Mars, and that we already have over 78,000 applicants to do so! More-so that the group of 78,000 applicants is a very diverse group from all around the world!

Bas Lansdorp, co-founder and chief executive officer of Mars One, says:

Mars One is a mission representing all humanity, and its true spirit will be justified only if people from the entire world are represented

The trip itself will take about seven months once the 4 are chosen but before that rovers will be sent to survey possible settlement areas and build the infrastructure of the colony for the candidates chosen. I just hope the Mars spiders don’t get these poor souls. For more on “the plan” click on over to this link to watch the Mars One video!

Research:

Mars One

Mars Facts

Space.com – Want to live on Mars?

Bas Lansdorp

Reality TV show to follow Settlers

Colonizing Mars Q and A

Wiki Olympus Mons

Wondergressive – Let’s Capture US an Asteroid

Wondergressive – Faster than light travel

Wondergressive – Mars Seasonal spiders

Wondergressive – TVs Brains and Zombies oh My!