Four Chinese among top 100 candidates for one-way trip to Mars

Mars One, a Dutch non-profit project co-founded in 2013 by Bas Lansdorp, a Dutch entrepreneur, aims to establish a permanent manned station on Mars.[Photo/community.mars-one.com]

"It's not assisted suicide, (because) we're not definitely going to die when we go up there. Mars One will try their best to make it as safe as possible before we go. It's not for 10 years' time, so technology will have advanced tremendously by then," Lieu said.

"Because Mars One's mission is to colonize Mars and we're sending quite a few people up there, it's inevitable that one day we will have to reproduce to maintain the society,'she said.

The project has been controversial ever its beginning. Some say they love the idea of humankind exploring and setting up camp on Mars, but that it's a one-way ticket and that freaks them out. Others even accuse the project of being a con game, with crowd funding, advertising revenue and a reality series.

The organizers promised that "a reliable living environment will be waiting for the astronauts when they leave Earth". A demonstration mission, communication satellites, two rovers and several cargo missions will be sent to Mars ahead of the selected astronauts.

The journey to the Red Planet will take at least seven months. After landing, astronauts will have to cope with intense radiation and hazardous temperatures and have no way of returning, based on existing technology.

Communication with the Earth also will be problematic as radio signals, depending on the alignment of the planets, can take between 4-21 minutes to travel from Mars.