Mars One, the company with the ambitious plan to colonize Mars with a group of people willing to take a one-way ride to the Red Plant, announced Monday that 1,058 out of more than 200,000 volunteers have made it to the second round of the application process. A conceptual drawing of the Mars One colony, which is to be established by a one-way mission to the Red Planet. (Photo : MarsOneProject / YouTube screenshot)

Mars One, a project dedicated to the human colonization of Mars, first opened the application process for astronaut and settler hopefuls in late April. Just two weeks later, nearly 80,000 individuals from around the world have volunteered to join the one-way mission headed for the Red Planet.

“With 78,000 applications in two weeks, this is turning out to be the most desired job in history,” Mars One Co-Founder and CEO Bans Lansdorp said in a press release.

In all, he reports, the company is on track to reach its goal of 500,000 applicants by the time the window for submission closes on Aug 31.

And though they represant over 120 different nations and a wide range of ages, the program's applicants are all connected by one shared trait: they want out.

“I believe the purpose of humankind is to reach every corner of the Universe to know the truth of existence: why we are here, who created us?” explains Vinod, a 30-year-old applicant from India, in his application video.

Despite being married and new father, Vinod says he's interested in joining the project as he sees Mars One as “a small step toward reaching the answer” and thus something he wants to contribute to.

And then there’s Kendra, a 19-year-old from the United States who says that, despite being seen as “cute and childish,” she is in fact “quite mature” and ready to start “life anew, and help build it with others.”

Diomedes, on the other hand, is 52-year-old man from Mexico.

“Why do I want to go to Mars? Because you need me to get there and terraform Mars into a thriving and prosperous new paradise for all future generations of Earth,” he says in his video, further explaining in his personal bio that he is someone who can “survive extreme solitariness without suffering from social or emotional detachment.”

According to Mars One, once the application process ends in late August, regional reviewers will select between 50 and 100 candidates for Round 2 from each of the 300 geographic regions in the world identified by the company.

Those chosen will then have a chance at, as the Mars One's website states, joining the ranks of the "famed explorers of the Old World Europe" by "exploring a new world" as well as participating in the "most revolutionary research ever conceived, to build a new home for humans on another planet."



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