Over 20,000 people apply to go to Mars and never come back

Reality shows are a dime a dozen. From documenting the fancy lives of semi-fancy people, to following the illegal moonshining misadventures of a toothless man named Jim Tom, there is a reality show out there for just about any interest nowadays. If you were really interested in a Mars-based reality show, though, you were unfortunately left without something to partially pay attention to while messing around on your tablet. Last year, a project was announced that would send civilians on a one-way trip to Mars — but it’d be filmed as a reality show. Dubbed Mars One, it turns out quite a bit of people are clamoring to be on the show, rather than rolling their eyes and smirking at blog posts covering the project in a serious manner.

The project recently opened up its application process, and it turns outmore than 20,000 people paid the $38 application fee in order to be a prospective candidate on the show-cum-historic-mission-that-will-forever-change-mankind.

If the project gets off the ground, the result of the show will be to send four people on a one-way trip to Mars. Unlike the ragtag team of drillers-by-day and astronauts-by-extinction-event in Armageddon, the potential Mars One candidates will have to train for around eight years in order to make the cut.

Snark aside, making Mars One a reality show in the age of reality television is most likely a decent idea. If it were just some obscure website claiming to transport people to Mars if you send in $38, it would most likely come off as either a scam or a serious project that no one takes seriously (probably the former). If you can create an emotional bond between a worldwide audience and the people involved in your project, you’ll stay in the public’s thoughts, which is much more helpful than being ignored or forgotten. To this effect, the Mars Onewebsite already has a simple ranking system in which regular people like us can rate our favorite applicant, and list them through a ranking filter.

The project plans to send people to Mars by 2023, so we all have a bit of time to get acquainted with those 20,000 (and counting) candidates.