600-plus Chinese apply for Mars settlement.[Photo/Shanghai Morning Post]

Many Chinese apparently long for a trip to outer space.

When applications began to be accepted for a program to create a settlement on Mars, more than 600 Chinese applied in the first 72 hours.

The Mars One project, launched by a Dutch non-profit organization, plans to bring four humans to Mars in 2023 to make it their home.

In the first three days that began April 22, as many as 20,000 people from around the world submitted applications online, and the project founder expected to attract up to 500,000 overall.

Bas Lansdorp, co-founder of Mars One, said he is confident that he can turn this bold dream into reality.

Lansdorp said that after 24 to 40 candidates have been fully trained and qualified, an audience vote will decide who the first settlers will be.

And these candidates will accept three months of training a year in an isolated environment over seven years.

Lansdorp said Mars One chose Shanghai as the second stop of their application press conference after New York City because he believes many Chinese, including children, are interested in being astronauts, especially as the country has already sent its own astronauts into space.

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