The Mars Reality Show Has Begun!

If you haven’t heard about the private-sector “Mars One” project to colonize Mars, you should check it out – I posted about it back in April.    The project envisions being largely financed by the proceeds of a reality show to eventually beam back to Earth as the 7 billion of us who stay behind follow the exploits of the first colonists.  Well, the project has been accepting applications for a number of months now, and there are over 100,000 people vying to be among the first humans to leave Earth on a one-way trip to Mars.  National Geographic has given us their favorites, and you can add your voice to the growing number of people supporting the applicants by checking out the Mars One Applicants website as well.  The top applicant (by public vote) is a 36-year-old Filipino man, with twelve million “likes” – more than five times the next most popular applicant, from China.  Oddly, he managed to get twelve million “likes” despite having only 15,000 views.

However, it’s not clear (to me, anyway) whether the Mars One organizers feel bound by public opinion; one would think that being able to communicate with each other, having a good balance of skills, and things like resilience and physical fitness would be bigger factors.  Or maybe just TV watchability.

Check out the applicants here and decide for yourself.  And there are still two weeks left until the application deadline!

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