According to MSNBC, Mark Burnett, the producer of “Survivor” who envisioned and realized 16 castaways duking it out for survival, like Gilligan’s Island with an edge, has made an even more daring programming decision: He plans a new “Survivor” series that will send 13 to 15 contestants to Star City, Russia. After a process of elimination, one lucky winner will be sent to Mir Space Station.

The survivor-naut of “Destination Mir” will spend a total of 10 days in space and be filmed along the way, from liftoff to splashdown.

There was no information as to how these dozen-plus competitors will be chosen.

According to Mark Burnett, “Destination Mir” will be nothing like “Survivor”, where the 16 participants formed fragile tribes and alliances as they ousted one contestant from their island per week. Instead, Russian officials will vote on the contestant, presumably based on their performance during training. The winner of “Survivor”, after chowing down on bugs for the cause, takes home US$1 million; the winner of “Destination Mir” gets a trip to space, a life experience currently valued at US$20 million.

Mark Burnett, displaying the spirit of adventure, says, “Maybe in the next 25 years it’ll be a regular thing. That’s the biggest hope.”

I wonder what Dan Goldin, head of NASA, has to say.

Now where do we sign up?