Poll: Life on Mars - do you fancy it?

The four women and a man are among the final 100 candidates for the Mars One Project which plans to set up a permanent human settlement on the planet by 2024.

More than 200,000 people applied for the mission. The controversial privately-funded endeavour has been estimated to cost six billion dollars and is set to be filmed for a reality television series.

Dr Maggie Lieu, 24, a PhD in astrophysics at the University of Birmingham is among the hopefuls. She said the mission is the opportunity of a lifetime.

She said: "It's always been my dream to explore space and advance space science so being given the opportunity to be one of the first ever people to physically land on that piece of space rock would be a dream come true."

Hannah Earnshaw, 23, a PhD student in astronomy at Durham University, is also among the British hopefuls. She is a science lab technician and a manager for Virgin Media. She said: "Human space exploration has always interested me so the opportunity to be one of the people involved was really appealing. The future of humanity is in space.

"My family is pretty thrilled. They're really happy for me. Obviously it's going to be challenging leaving Earth and not coming back. I've had support from my friends and family and we can still communicate via the internet." Ms Earnshaw said she will now be tested in groups on her response to stressful situations before finding out at the end of the year if she has made the list of 24 people chosen for the mission.

There will then be eight or nine unmanned trips to Mars before the first group of four astronauts will be launched into space in 2024, she said. Other British hopefuls include Oxford University student Ryan MacDonald, 21, from Derby, Alison Rigby, 35, from Beckenham, Kent, and Clare Weedon, 27, from Addlestone, Surrey.

In total, 50 men and 50 women have been shortlisted from around the world.