Company seeks applicants for reality TV show, one-way trip to Mars

Earthlings, don't miss the chance to expand your horizons beyond the atmosphere and become a reality television star at the same time.

Media is gaping, brows furrowed, at the proposal by a non-profit organization called Mars One to develop a reality television show about auditions for a one-way trip to the planet Mars.

[ Related: Mars colony project to begin astronaut search in July ]

A society, homes, even childbirth — those involved claim they have it all worked out. They don't appear to be joking.

Many questions remain, including how Mars One intends to reach the red planet with the people and the means for human settlement by 2023, using only "existing, readily available technologies," as stated on the website.

A Nobel-prize winning physicist, Gerard 't Hooft, recently promoted the project in an interview with New Scientist.

He said there were already nearly 40,000 applicants to leave Earth forever.

[ Related: Martian marriage: Couple needed for 500-day trip to the Red Planet ]

What of the recent, far-fetched proposal by a multimillionaire to send a couple on a mission to circle Mars? 'T Hooft told New Scientist it isn't nearly as exciting as the prospect of starting a colony. He said he fears public interest will wane.

Interplanetary travel? Boring. Give us reality television and a no-return flight into the unknown.