Free Beer & Hot Wings: A Colony on Mars Is Closer Than We Think [Video]

Have you ever wanted to live on Mars?

Well, 1,058 people are finalists in a worldwide contest for the chance to live on Mars.

The project for a permament human settlement on Mars is organized by the Dutch non-profit Mars One. The effort is backed by several aerospace companies, including SpaceX and Lockheed Martin.

There were more than 200,000 candidates who wanted to live permanently on the Red Planet, according to Mars One co-founder Bas Lansdorp.

He said the challenge was "separating those who we feel are physically and mentally adept to become human ambassadors on Mars from those who are obviously taking the mission much less seriously. We even had a couple of applicants submit their videos in the nude!"

The final contestants are expected to be chosen in 2022, when the current pool of candidates gets reduced to 40. Those selected are to undergo several months of training, with four expected to be chosen for the initial Mars mission.

Mars One was initially slated to land its first humans on Mars in 2023, but the project is now targeting 2025. Hopes are that every two years after, four more people will be sent up to Mars.

While the candidates have to worry about radiation and meteorites, we wonder if they have to continue to repopulate the Mars colony themselves.

Source: Free Beer & Hot Wings