Having read all of that I suspect it's an elaborate plot for a TV series in which they will dupe some of the applicants into believing they are going to Mars and film them in an ultra-extreme Big Brother capsule for a sustained period of time.

There is precedent, in the UK there was a program that duped 10 people into believing they were orbiting Earth: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Cadets_(TV_series)