Dec 11, 2013 01:27 PM EST By Jaleesa Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

More than 200,000 people have applied for a one-way ticket to live on Mars, CNN reported.

The Mars One Foundation, a Dutch company, announced Tuesday that it's moving forward with its ambitious plan to send 24 Earthlings to colonize the Red Planet. The catch is they won't ever come back to Earth and will finish out the rest of their lives on Mars.

Lansdorp told reporters in Washington that since the Mars One Foundation announced the plan in April to establish the first permanent human settlement on Mars in 2023, people from more than 140 countries express interest in being a prospective astronaut for the mission.

The foundation announced that is has secured "lead suppliers for an unmanned mission launching in 2018," which will involve a robotic lander and a communication satellite.

The first mission is slated to take place five years from now, will demonstrate technology that would be involved in a permanent human settlement on Mars. The Mars One Foundation has contacted Lockheed Martin to study building the lander, and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. will develop a concept study for the satellite, Mars One said.

Lansdorp said the unmanned mission is the "most important and most difficult step of actually getting humans to Mars,"

If all goes well the first pioneers could land on Mars in 2025, according to CNN. The application period is now closed, and by the end of this year, the company plans to notify those special folk who made it to round 2.

The applicants are apparently OK with living out the rest of their lives on Mars as the technology for a return flight does not exist. A Kennedy Space Center launch pad does not exist on the red planet. The company added that having a one-way trip greatly reduces costs.

"The opportunity to participate in that is just really exciting," Ed Sedivy, a chief engineer at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, told CNN.  

This mission will be the first privately funded planetary exploration mission.

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