Dream chasers
The intensive reports and heated discussion about the project have also given Chinese applicants the opportunity to step into the limelight.
The hopeful candidates range in age from 18 to 40 years old and are from different backgrounds, but they have one goal in common: going to Mars to chase their dreams of space exploration.
"It is impossible for ordinary Chinese people to participate in any space exploration project. Now I can use this opportunity to achieve my dream of traveling in space, which is good," Yang said.
Yang said the program has already begun to change his life.
"I've never been interviewed by any journalists, but now, I receive four to five phone calls a day," Yang said.
Yang launched an online chat group called "Mars One Fans" for applicants to exchange opinions on the project. The number of members has risen sharply in recent days due to the intensive reporting about the group.
Yang was thrilled to think he could build a colony with others if he ends up being selected as an astronaut for the project.
According to the Mars One Project, even though the rover will take responsibility for much of the heavy construction work, astronauts are required to undertake a wide range of research, such as studying how their own bodies respond and change when living on the Red Planet, and being involved in some of the construction of man's first colony on Mars.
Yang takes the mission seriously. "I talked with my parents seriously before I applied for the mission," Yang said.
The mission assumes that the astronauts will not be able to return to Earth due to technological restrictions and the fact that after adapting to Mars' conditions, humans will find it nearly impossible to return to Earth's much stronger gravity.
"I told them I couldn't come back if I was selected as an astronaut. They were worried but eventually agreed," Yang said, adding that he would keep contact with his parents by sending back video footage of him on Mars.
"We needn't worry about my parents, because the company will take care of them for me."
The company said they would provide a stable income for the families of the astronauts.
By way of preparation, Yang began practicing English and exercising everyday. "You must build a strong body to welcome the coming Mars adventure," Yang said.
"I have always believed that I was born with some mission. There is something I must do, and I think going to Mars is a brave idea, and this might be the chance," former soldier Ma Qiang, a 40-year-old applicant from Dujiangyan, Sichuan Province, told the Global Times.
Ma said some people had signed up in order to escape from real life.
When asked how he would feel if the project were to fail to come to fruition, Ma said, "We cannot be 100 percent sure that the project can succeed. At least, foreign companies and individuals dare to launch such a project. We Chinese cannot even dare to think about it."
10 million-yuan bra shines in Shengyang, North China
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