Group plans Mars settlement - New York News | NYC Breaking News

A Dutch company called Mars One is planning to settle Mars by the year 2023 by sending people on a one-way rocket ride to the red planet.

And Mars One hopes to turn the entire process into a reality TV show.

They say that the only way the mission will be possible is to fund it commercially. And the only business model that they say they believe is currently feasible, is one based on the creation of a "global media spectacle" around the project.

They hope a worldwide audience would help pick the teams of settlers, follow their training  observe the trip, and pay for it.  The mission is estimated to cost $6 billion.

The plan would be to establish a habitable settlement that would receive new astronauts every two years.

The group claims that existing technology would make it feasible.  Mars One estimates the trip would take seven months.

Mars One says a team has worked on the plan since 2011.  It says it expects millions of people will sign up for a chance to be one of the first four astronauts.

Mars One says it plans to build a replica base in a desert here on earth where astronauts will be tested regularly for about three months at a time, in Mars-like conditions, with the presence of cameras. Until they leave Earth, they can always back out.

NASA scientists have also been studying having astronauts make a one-way trip to set up a human colony on Mars or its moons.

A NASA team believes it could send a team of astronauts to settle on Mars by 2030. The journey could take between six and nine months.

NASA also envisions a one-way mission to Mars, since it would be too expensive to fly people back and forth. Instead, the astronauts would establish a colony on the red planet and be sent regular supplies until they could become self-sufficient.