Branson's Mars Hoax Nets Credulous SpaceniksBranson's Mars Hoax Nets Credulous Spaceniks

So what about the Mars mission volunteers who bounded up on stage with Virgin Group Ltd. founder, Sir Richard Branson, yesterday? Did they know they got punk'd?Branson used his CTIA Wireless keynote to announce the formation of "Virgle," a collaboration between Virgin and Google to set up an Earthling colony on Mars. The volunteers for Mars will face a slightly different proposition than the amateur astronauts who will go up for outer-space tours on Virgin Galactic's spaceship, Branson noted: "They may not be coming back."

Google posted an elaborate Web page devoted to the Virgle mission, including a questionnaire that asked prospective volunteers such probing multiple-choice questions as:

"If I was unexpectedly confronted with the emergence of a bewilderingly alien and frighteningly advanced Martian life form which appeared bent on killing me if I failed to quickly and effectively communicate my peaceful intentions and potential value to its civilization, I would … "

(Possible answers: a) Die, b) Whip out my handy universal transcorder and start schmoozing my ass off, and so on.)

Several online media outlets reported this scheme as fact, though as of today those stories have been removed or changed to reflect the fact that, after all, Sir Richard was speaking on April Fools' Day. (Luckily, I was on deadline for other stories, so I missed the opportunity to appear a credulous fool.)

In an interview with CNBC afterward, Branson continued to insist that the Mars mission was no hoax. At the end of his talk on Tuesday, he'd asked for volunteers for the Red Planet to join him on stage. At least two dozen people stampeded the dais (one poor schmo was seen trying to hand the grinning tycoon/adventurer a business card, and getting brushed off). Most of them, I'm willing to bet, thought the interplanetary venture was completely legit. It seemed a bit of a cruel prank.

Oh, well, at least they got a photo of themselves onstage with Sir Richard. Hopefully he'll be sending out signed glossies.