78,000 Apply to Colonize Mars

78,000 in two weeks. Well, isn't that special.  May I remind you this is a one way trip.  Are we that desperate to get out of town? Apparently, huge numbers of people on Earth are keen to leave the planet forever and seek a new life on Mars. About 78,000 people have applied to become Red Planet colonists with the nonprofit organization Mars One since its application process opened on April 22.

Now don't get all excited, the process is going to take a few years and will end by an audience choosing the 4 who will travel to Mars.  According to Science World Report it goes like this:

The Mars One online application forms are open for a period of 19 weeks, until August 31st 2013. From all the applicants in Round 1, regional reviewers will select around 50-100 candidates for Round 2 in each of the 300 geographic regions in the world that Mars One has identified.

Four rounds make the selection process, which will come to an end in 2015; Mars One will then employ 28-40 candidates, who will train for around 7 years. Finally an audience vote will elect one of groups in training to be the envoys of humanity to Mars.

Mars One aims to land four people on the Red Planet in 2023 as the beginning of a permanent colony, with more astronauts arriving every two years thereafter.

And if you'd like to go but come back, amazingly enough there is another mission in the works.