'It's time, if you're so inclined, to plunk down a reservation for a one-way ticket to Mars. The privately funded Mars One foundation recently opened up applications for astronauts to take a journey to the Red Planet in 2022/23. Return trips, the organisers said, just aren't feasible with the technology we have.
'From a wide field of applicants, organisers said two women and two men will be selected to make the journey. The technology that takes them there has been tested before, and the potential for a worldwide audience will be there given four billion people will have the internet by then, said Mars One CEO Bas Lansdorp.
'However, a cost breakdown of the £3.93 billion budget - as well as a concrete plan for how reality television deals and other sponsorship money will be secured - was not provided to the public at the press conference, prompting some scepticism among journalists as to whether the plan could be achieved.
'Lansdorp remained optimistic in the face of questions concerning the project's viability, pointing out the London Olympics in 2012 generated nearly £2.62 billion in revenues for a three-week spectacle. This makes Mars One a bargain deal for investors, he said.' (Wired article & Mars One website).