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[bayonetbrant]

Wanted: Mars Colonists to Explore Red Planet

If you think you have the right stuff to help colonize Mars, you'll soon get your chance to prove it.

The Netherlands-based nonprofit Mars One, which hopes to put the first boots on the Red Planet in 2023, released its basic astronaut requirements today (Jan. 8), setting the stage for a televised global selection process that will begin later this year.

Mars One isn't zeroing in on scientists or former fighter pilots; anyone who is at least 18 years old can apply to become a Mars colony pioneer. The most important criteria, officials say, are intelligence, good mental and physical health and dedication to the project, as astronauts will undergo eight years of training before launch.

"Gone are the days when bravery and the number of hours flying a supersonic jet were the top criteria," Norbert Kraft, Mars One's chief medical director and a former NASA researcher, said in a statement. "Now, we are more concerned with how well each astronaut works and lives with the others, in the long journey from Earth to Mars and for a lifetime of challenges ahead."

Mars One plans to launch a series of robotic cargo missions between 2016 and 2021, which will build a habitable Red Planet outpost ahead of the arrival of the first four colonists in 2023. More settlers will arrive every two years after that. There are no plans to return the pioneers to Earth.

read more at the link

[Centurion40]

Good luck to 'em.

[Martok]

This still sounds like some elaborate scam/hoax/impossible dream to me.  Somewhere right now, the ghost of P.T. Barnum is laughing is head off. 

[mirth]

The crew shirt that will be issued...

[Gusington]

I'll do it just for that t shirt.

[mirth]

I'll do it just for that t shirt.

Don't be alarmed if you are issued a slightly used shirt with a hole torn in the front.

[LongBlade]

Haven't seen Prometheus yet. Not sure if it lived up to the hype.

Ya know, there was a time when I might have been tempted to live on another planet. But as I sit here and contemplate it, it's kinda like a desert isle that wants to kill you. It's one thing to be living on the moon and look out your front door to see Earth every morning. It's something else to be four years from home and not particularly easy to hitch a ride back.

I'd need somebody to sell me on the idea. Preferably two or three somebodies with snuggly curves and a willingness to share. Me.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

You get your own red velour shirt and one hour with the camp green-skinned chick every second Thursday. 

[LongBlade]

You get your own red velour shirt and one hour with the camp green-skinned chick every second Thursday.

Works for me. Sign me up!

[Gusington]

Get in line pal, I was here first. And that's what my Mars bumper sticker will say also.

[Huw the Poo]

Absolute nonsense.  What do they hope to achieve?  How would they even get there?  This can't be real.  (I haven't RTFA)

Haven't seen Prometheus yet. Not sure if it lived up to the hype.

I've already posted my thoughts in the relevant thread; that's all you need to know to make a decision. ;)

[LongBlade]

I've already posted my thoughts in the relevant thread; that's all you need to know to make a decision. ;)

Ah. Heading there now.

[Huw the Poo]

Here's the permalink so you don't have to skip through spoilers. :D

[LongBlade]

Here's the permalink so you don't have to skip through spoilers. :D

Thanks. Already found it and managed to avoid the worst of the spoilers :)

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Take all their money, launch them into space. This is a business plan for real capitalists.