78,000 to live on Mars with over thousands of people applied to leave earth forever as they want to live on the mars forever. When Mars One announced that they were opening up applications for permanent residency in their proposed permanent colony, they expected to generate some interest. After all, they’re shooting for a half million applicants. What they did not expect, according to Mars One co-founder and CEO Bas Lansdorp, was a rush of over 78,000 applications in just two weeks. Lansdorp told Business Insider that his organization had expected “a slow start,” that would eventually build toward their 500,000 applicant goal by the August 31st deadline. Instead they got nearly a sixth of their goal in a fraction of the expected time. According to Lansdorp, many applicants say that they have been following the project since before the application process began. According to information released by Mars One on Tuesday, applicants come from more than 120 countries, and have a variety of