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Hundreds Of Thousands Of People Apply To Win One-Way Ticket To Mars

By Christy Strawser
"To the moon, Alice!"

Actually, in this case, it's "to Mars," and thousands of people are vying for the honor of the trip.

A company called Mars One created the competition to give one lucky winner a one-way ticket to Mars -- for real. The company's overall goal is to create a human establishment on the Red Planet.

What will the winner do there, especially with an atmosphere made up mostly of carbon dioxide? Apparently plenty of people are willing to explore their options.

Mars One got 202,586 applicants for the trip, per a press release from the company, and selected 100 hopefuls to proceed to the next round.

"The large cut in candidates is an important step towards finding out who has the right stuff to go to Mars," said Bas Lansdorp, Co-founder & CEO of Mars One, in a press release. "These aspiring martians provide the world with a glimpse into who the modern day explorers will be."

The final selection rounds will focus on "composing teams that can endure all the hardships of a permanent settlement on Mars. The candidates will receive their first shot at training in the copy of the Mars Outpost on Earth and will demonstrate their suitability to perform well in a team," per a press release.

Mars One is looking to raise $6 billion for the settlement they plan on the planet closest to the sun.

As of September, there have been 40 missions to Mars, according to Space Facts. NASA is planning a rover and robot mission for 2016.

There's no word on whether the first earthling to step foot on the planet plans to say "take me to your leader."

 

 

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