You could call it "Who Wants to Be an Astronaut?"

TV executives in Denmark are developing a new game show that will offer a future trip to space for the lucky winner.

"Think of it as a lottery with the amazing first prize being a trip to space and back and a chance of one in 5,000 of winning. That’s what I call odds," said Filip von Spreckelsen, production manager for Jarowskij, the Scandinavian TV production firm that is teaming with Danish TV2 for the show.

However, luck alone will not get you to the cosmos. You also have to prove you've got the "right stuff" physically and mentally.

The show, called "The Great Mission," is open to Danish citizens ages 18 and older.

Some 5,000 Danes will compete over the course of 10 shows to test their knowledge of space subjects and demonstrate their physical prowess, teamwork and mental strength.

Contestants first must travel through a sort of maze in which they proceed down various corridors by correctly answering space questions. A wrong answer will eject them from the competition.

"This as well as the rest of the tests they will encounter is designed to weed out the participants from 500 to one in just one hour of show time," von Spreckelsen said.

The ten Danish finalists will travel to Florida's "space coast" to face further challenges of astronaut training at U.S. Space Camp and to visit historic NASA sites at Cape Canaveral.

"We will let the competitors try out different space-related assignments, from solving physical problems in a simulated zero-G environment to repairing equipment using space tools, the stuff astronauts do for a living," von Spreckelsen said.

The single winner of this "space race" will then be awarded a ticket to space as a backseat passenger in a sub-orbital flight. The flight will occur in a private reusable spacecraft that has yet to be developed.

The idea is that the reusable spacecraft, called a "space plane," will be either towed or riding on a larger vehicle to an altitude of roughly 40,000 to 60,000 feet.

There the space plane's own rocket engine will start and push it on a ballistic trajectory with a peak altitude of 63 miles (100 km) -- the point at which space begins.

"We are cooperating with six different companies working on reusable vehicles for commercial space flights, four of these are working with the ‘space plane’ concept," Bell said.

The first 10 shows are to be aired on Danish TV this October through December. The final round is scheduled to run from February to April 2001.

The ride itself could happen between 2003 and 2005, depending on how fast the space plane becomes a reality.