The Mars One project to establish the first human settlement on the Red Planet by 2023 has received 78,000 applications in just two weeks, with as many as 500,000 expected to apply by the time applications close on August 31.
Mars One, a Dutch not-for-profit organization, is planning theproject to have no return ticket back to Earth due to a lack of technology, and the physiological changes the human body will undergo after it adjusts “to the 38% gravitation field of Mars, and be incapable of returning to the Earth’s much stronger gravity,”the Mars One website explained.
The company has already received thousands of application from over 120 countries. The majority of applicants are from the US (17,324), followed by China (10,241), the United Kingdom (3,581), Russia, Mexico and Brazil.
“With seventy-eight thousand applications in two weeks, this is turning out to be the most desired job in history. These numbers put us right on track for our goal of half a million applicants,” Mars One Co-Founder and CEO Bas Lansdorp said in a press release.
