Irishman one of 80,000 seeking spot on one-way Mars mission

There’s emigration and then there’s space travel: almost 80,000 people have already expressed an interest in a one-way ticket to Mars to live on a space colony — including one Irishman.

Barry Peter appears to be the sole Irish entrant in the race to join the Mars One project, which as of yesterday had received 78,000 applications just two weeks after it asked people to get in touch.

Mars One, a Dutch- based non-profit organisation, hopes to send a crew to Mars by 2022 and it expects 500,000 applications to have been lodged by the Aug 31 closing date.