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Mars group looking for people who want to leave Earth and never come back [VIDEO]

Josh Peterson Contributor
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Want to travel to Mars? You’re in luck: An international Netherlands-based non-profit organization is currently recruiting astronauts to staff its 2023 Mars colony mission.

The company, Mars One, announced on Tuesday its astronaut selection criteria, of which mental resilience and a strong sense of purpose are considered important traits. Mars One’s goal is to establish the first human settlement on Mars in 2023.

In the first half of 2013, Mars One will begin its global search for the best candidates for the mission. Six teams of four will be chosen from the influx of candidates, and each of which will undergo 8 years of training needed to travel to and live on Mars.

In 2016, the first supply mission will be sent to Mars to stock the planet near where the colony outpost is expected to be; in 2018; the first robotic rover will be sent to Mars to scout an ideal location for the colony. By 2021, all of the components to construct the colony will have reached Mars. After the first team arrives in 2023, the second team will have arrived in 2025.

The company stated on its website that it has “designed a mission that uses components made exclusively by existing suppliers, and has confirmed all major components through letters of interest.”

“While most of the components required are not immediately available with the exact specifications required, there is at this time no need for radical modifications to the current component designs,” a Mars One release read. “All suppliers have confirmed their ability to build what is required–and they can do so now.

In Mars One’s video about the program, Dr. Gerard T. Hooft, a theoretical physicist and Nobel Prize winner, said, “This project appears to be the only way to fulfill humanity’s dream of exploring outer space. Let’s get started.”

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Josh Peterson