Last week we mentioned Mars One, the combination space mission/reality TV show project that aims to send four lucky space travelers to the Red Planet... forever. Interest in the project had been quite high, with the company's latest press release noting that it had received "10,000 messages from prospective applicants from over 100 countries." But that was before it started taking actual, formal, paid applications from would-be astronauts.

Turns out that in the week since, at least 20,000 people have paid $38 to formally apply for Mars One. Various sources around the Internet, including China Daily, are reporting that the world is full of people who wouldn't mind living out the remainder of their days in a questionable camera-stuffed habitat on Mars. Around 600 of the applicants are Chinese citizens, and it's arguable that some might not understand what they're getting into. According to China Daily, some of the prospective astronauts are a little optimistic about what they might find waiting for them once they reach their destination:

Ma Qing, a 39-year-old bookseller, said, "I think the chance to be part of the project is a cool way for me to change a dull daily life. Besides, the air on Mars must be much cleaner and easier to breathe."

Spoiler alert: Mars has an average atmospheric pressure of about 0.6 percent of Earth's, measuring 0.087 psi compared to Earth's 14.7 psi. It isn't a vacuum, but it's not far off, either. Citizens of Mars will need to bring their atmosphere with them, at least until we figure out how to terraform the entire world (a feat which is utterly beyond our current level of technology, at least in part because it requires the ability to shift large amounts of cargo from Earth to Mars).

So what makes Mars One so confident of success at a task that NASA has struggled with since the 1970s? Cofounder Bas Lansdorp's plan is to pull in tremendous public interest by playing the entire mission as a "reality TV" experience, getting folks attached to Mars One contestants candidates just like they do to American Idol hopefuls. The process has already started: the Mars One applicant site already lets people rate applicants. From there, you can pick out your favorites and vote them up.

In fact, this is how the project expects to clear the majority of its financing: the Mars One project will be filmed, from beginning to end, with the spacecraft and habitats all wired up with cameras and microphones like a grand version of the Big Brother house. No word on whether or not contestants will be able to vote each other out of the airlock, but here's hoping, because that would be awesome. And also horrible. But awesome.

Listing image by NASA.