'Survivor' on Mars? Company Plans Reality Show about Colonizing Red Planet

The idea of "Survivor" on Mars may not be as farfetched as it sounds. A nonprofit organization aiming to create a reality TV show around its journey to, and subsequent colonization of the Red Planet has attracted its first investors for the bold $6 billion project, according to Space.com.

Click here to see more artist renderings of the planned Mars colony

The company spearheading the effort, Netherlands-based Mars One, has secured investments that will help fund its conceptual design studies, as well as its astronaut selection program, both of which will begin soon, Mars One officials announced Tuesday.

"Raising a few million [US dollars] in the coming months may seem insignificant in the shadow of the pending billions required, but we are taking it one step at a time," Kai Staats, director of business development for Mars One, said in a statement. "These first few bring tangible demonstration to nearly two years in planning. For us, committed funds in this phase of development are an important indicator we are moving in the right direction."

In what may signal the future of both space exploration and TV, Mars One will take corporate synergy to new heights with the project. The company plans to stage a global reality TV show around the one-way mission. Cameras would follow every step of the process, from the astronaut selection, to the settlers' first years on the planet, according to the organization. Mars One believes revenues from the broadcasting rights and sponsorships for the TV program would cover most of its costs.

This week's new investments should help Mars One's ambitious project get underway. The money will be used to fund conceptual design studies, "engineering bids from private spaceflight companies that aim to provide the spaceships, habitat modules and other major components of the Mars colony," according to Space.com, and will start within the first half of 2013.

Some of the investments will also go toward financing Mars One's televised astronaut selection process. The organization will likely launch the candidate search this year, officials said.

While you'll have to wait a little while before you can formally apply for the project, Mars One released its astronaut requirements earlier this month. Prospective cosmic colonizers must be at least 18-years-old, in good mental and physical health and willing to undergo a training program that will last roughly eight years.

Mars One plans to launch a series of robotic missions between 2016 and 2020 in preparation for colonization, which will build an outpost on the Red Planet. The organization expects the first four astronauts selected to land on Mars in 2023, with more touching down on the planet about every two years after that.

Mars One says there are no plans to return the Red Planet's first colonists to Earth.