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anyone who is at least 18 years old can apply to become a Mars colony pioneer

important criteria, officials say, are intelligence, good mental and physical health and dedication to the project, as astronauts will undergo eight years of training before launch.

Mars One plans to launch a series of robotic cargo missions between 2016 and 2021, which will build a habitable Red Planet outpost ahead of the arrival of the first four colonists in 2023.

More settlers will arrive every two years after that. There are no plans to return the pioneers to Earth

fund most of its ambitious activities by staging a global reality-TV event

Well before the official Astronaut Selection Program, we received more than 1,000 emails from individuals who desire to go to Mars

April 22

plans to land four people on the Red Planet in 2023

permanent human colony on the Red Planet, with new crews arriving every two years thereafter

Human explorers

will doubtless contaminate whatever site is chosen for the settlement

so the organization will try to pick a place unlikely to host indigenous life

localize the pollution

Mars One is working with experts to minimize the risks its colonization effort may pose to potential Red Planet lifeforms

While Mars One hasn't picked a precise location for its settlement yet, the organization is targeting a swath of the Red Planet between 40 and 45 degrees north latitude

Mars One astronauts will not necessarily be scientists

Anyone over the age of 18 is eligible to apply, with the selection committee prizing traits such as intelligence, resourcefulness, determination and psychological stability over academic background

Science is

not the main focus of what we are doing

Crewmembers will take some scientific gear with them

but Mars One officials won't dictate what the experiments should be.

There will of course be a budget for equipment that they want to take for scientific research

Mars One estimates that landing four settlers on Mars in 2023 will cost about $6 billion

plans to pay most of the bills by staging a global reality-TV event, with cameras documenting all phases of the mission from astronaut selection to the colonists' first years on the Red Planet.

The application process extends until Aug. 31. Anyone at least 18 years of age can apply, by submitting to the Mars One website a 1-minute video explaining his or her motivation to become a Red Planet settler. (

application fee, which ranges from $5 to $75 depending on the wealth of the applicant's home country. United States citizens pay $38

reviewers will pick 50 to 100 candidates from each of the 300 regions around the world that Mars One has identified

By 2015, this pool will be whittled down to a total of 28 to 40 candidates, officials said.

core group will be split into groups of four, which will train for their one-way Mars mission for about seven years

. Finally, an audience vote will pick one of these groups to be humanity's first visitors to the Red Planet.

more than 120 countries

United States

17,324

China (10,241) and the United Kingdom (3,581). Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Argentina and India round out the top 10.

The mission's timetable has been pushed back by two years. The satellite was originally supposed to launch in 2016, with humans arriving by 2023. Now, Mars One is aiming for a 2025 colonization date.