Thirty Americans Chosen to Settle and Live in Mars Permanently for Mars One Mission

Mars here we come!

The one-way ticket to Mars is one that what we may call the travel of a lifetime. Around 2024, four earthlings will travel to Mars and stay there for the rest of their lives. In the following years, more earthlings will blast off to Mars to provide permanent residency and never to return.

Their mission: to create a colony on the Red Planet and begin a new era in space exploration.

In a report by People, "This is a mission of permanent settlement," says Bas Lansdorp, the Dutch businessman who created Mars One, a private space exploration nonprofit. "They go to Mars to stay."

Skeptics wonder if the project is even feasible. Mars One has yet to raise significant capital or build a single spacecraft. Critics say the program needs to do additional research on human survival, long-term sustainability and other pertinent issues.

So who would sign up for a one-way trip that may never happen? Apparently, lots of people: Mars One has received 202,000 applications.

The applicants have been narrowed down to 100 semifinalists, including 30 Americans. Five of them talk to PEOPLE about why they want to visit the Red Planet.

Kenya Armbrister

Armbrister, 36, works in research and development for a global pharmaceutical company in Oakland, California. She has two masters degrees and calls herself a proponent of human rights. "I think space exploration will be very important in the next 10 to 20 years," she says.

Peter Degen-Portnoy

The 51-year-old software engineer from Stoneham, Massachusetts, is intrigued at the opportunity. "I never thought this was something that would happen in my lifetime," he says.

Sue Ann Pien

Pien, 35, lives in Los Angeles and works as a manager at a tech company. "I've always loved space," she says.

Peter Felgentreff

A technology executive from California, the married 50-year-old believes that a Mars trip will be good for the human race.

Kay Radzik Warren

The 54-year-old lives in Reno, Nevada, and works as a project manager at an architectural firm.