Quote: Step right up and prove why you should get a one-way ticket to Mars! Well, wait -- you might want to know a little more about the venture first.

A Dutch company called Mars One began looking Monday for volunteer astronauts to fly to Mars. Departure for the Red Planet is scheduled for 2022, landing seven months later in 2023.

The space travelers will return ... never. They will finish out their lives on Mars, representatives from the nonprofit said.

"It's likely that there will be a crematorium," said CEO Bas Lansdorp. "It's up to the people on Mars to decide what to do with their dead."

Quote:Mars One plans to fund the mission partly from the sale of technology developed during the mission, Lansdorp said. It will share it with potential suppliers, which Mars One lists on its website.

Media coverage will provide the main funding for the mission, Mars One said. Publicity is key, and the media event begins now with the casting of the astronauts.

"Not unlike the televised events of the Olympic Games, Mars One intends to maintain an ongoing, global media event, from astronaut selection to training, from liftoff to landing," it says.

How much money will that yield? It's tough to say, but the NCAA projects it will take in $700 million for television broadcast rights for its 2013 college sporting events.

Lansdorp said that after consulting with media experts and ad agencies, he's confident life on Mars will remain a hit for decades on Earth and will be able to weather any financial crisis or war on Earth.

"If humans land on Mars, everyone will want to watch," he said. "It will be bigger than the Olympic Games."

If all goes well, Earthling television viewers can look forward to a decades-long reality show, though Lansdorp said the astronauts will be allowed to turn the cameras off at times