Firm Plans Reality Show —on Mars

Combine a Dutch Nobelist, the co-creator of Big Brother, and a Mars-obsessed company, and what do you get? A reality show that follows the creation of the first human colony on Mars, of course. Mars One, as the company is called, plans to send four people to the planet by 2023, adding to that group until the population hits 20 a decade later, the Daily Mail reports. The firm will fund the trip by making it "the biggest media event ever," it says.

It all reportedly starts next year, when the future astronauts are selected and start training. The public will help choose the team, whose members "will share their experiences with us as they build their new home, conduct experiments, and explore Mars," notes the company, which has been in talks with aerospace companies since last year. Reality-TV honcho Paul Romer is on board for the project, which he calls a "one-way mission"; he joins Nobel prize-winning physicist Gerard 't Hooft in supporting it. "Reality meets talent show with no ending and the whole world watching. Now there’s a pitch," Romer notes. (More Paul Romer stories.)