Mars Mission as Reality TV

Photo courtesy of Mars One

With shows like Fox's Utopia and Discovery's Naked and Afraid demonstrating reality TV's evolution into televised social experiment, this new subgenre is glowing red hot. So, when Dutch billionaire Bas Lansdorp announced his plan to establish a Mars colony, it's no wonder industry insiders saw the idea as the pinnacle of televised reality.

DSP, an Endemol company, has now teamed with Lansdorp's Mars One to create an unscripted show documenting these forthcoming 300-million mile one-way missions. According to the press release, DSP is, "the exclusive worldwide production partner for the Mars One astronaut selection and training program

which will see people from all walks of life undergo one of the most extraordinary and challenging assessment processes ever seen."

DSP becomes the exclusive worldwide production partner for the Mars One astronaut selection and training program, which will see people from all walks of life undergo one of the most extraordinary and challenging assessment processes ever seen. - See more at: http://www.mars-one.com/news/press-releases/mars-one-teams-with-endemol-for-worldwide-tv-event#sthash.f3kNTLwG.dpuf

DSP becomes the exclusive worldwide production partner for the Mars One astronaut selection and training program, which will see people from all walks of life undergo one of the most extraordinary and challenging assessment processes ever seen. - See more at: http://www.mars-one.com/news/press-releases/mars-one-teams-with-endemol-for-worldwide-tv-event#sthash.f3kNTLwG.dpuf

Beginning no later than 2024, Mars One foresees sending teams of four trained colonizers to Mars every two years. Mars One has already received to 200,000 applications from team hopefuls around the world. That number has now been shortlisted to 705 "highly motivated candidates" who will be tested and evaluated by a panel of elite scientists, astronauts and adventurers.

It seems that space is the final frontier for reality television and chronicling the human diaspora across the galaxy goes hand in hand. Our first journeys beyond our atmosphere will be televised with a combination of entertaining voyeurism and documentary not dissimilar to the moon landing or the Nasa space shuttle launches.

Endemol is not the only production company taking the leap. Last year, NBC signed on to Space Race from producer Mark Burnett and British billionaire Richard Branson. The show will have contestants competing for a spot on Branson's commercial spaceline, Virgin Galactic.