Mars One: funding enables important steps forward in 2017Amersfoort, January 5, 2017 - Mars One today confirms its short term mission and business plans for 2017. In December 2016, a €6 million investment from World Stock & Bond Trade Limited was announced of which a first of six equal batches will be received end of January 2017. This will allow Mars One to take the next steps to move the mission to Mars forward, to strengthen its capital and liquidity position, and to boost the exposure and commercial activities. Mars One expects to achieve this by expanding the teams for the Mars One entities with experienced team members: the not-for-profit Mars One Foundation and the publicly trading Mars One Ventures AG [FRA: KCC], ISIN: CH0132106482.“We’ll add several team members with experience in implementing Mars missions” said Arno Wielders, Mars One’s CTO and Co-founder. “These new team members will help us further shape and manage the technical road map for our mission to Mars. In space development terms, our mission design is currently in Phase A. Completing all conceptual design studies will result in a firm baseline design and improved cost figures. Phase B will be the detailed design of all elements needed to safely land humans on Mars and keep them alive. Completing that development phase will allow Mars One to move the mission forward to Phases C and D: all hardware is built, manufactured, integrated and tested, and finally launched to Mars. That should lead to full system readiness on the surface of Mars, giving the green light for the first crew of four astronauts to start their journey to Mars,” explains Wielders.The first three conceptual design studies in Mars One’s current mission development phase have been completed by Paragon Space Development Corporation and Lockheed Martin. Suppliers with relevant experience will be contracted to perform conceptual design studies for all other major (sub)-systems required for the permanent settlement mission. These studies demand 500 to 2500 man-hours each leading to a comprehensive technical concept design of the various components of the mission to Mars.In addition to expanding team on the engineering side of the mission, the Mars One Foundation will hire team members with experience in crew selection and training. Mars One is currently preparing for the next selection rounds to trim down the current group of 100 Round Three astronaut candidates. Up to six groups of four crew members will become full time employees of Mars One to start training for the mission. The design for the next rounds is ready and the next steps are determining the dates and locations, expanding the team of selection and training specialists, and logistics. “New team members will help the Mars One selection committee with the overall progress of the upcoming selection rounds and training, including for example the execution and evaluation of the astronaut selection activities, and guiding the teams,” says Norbert Kraft, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Mars One.Mars One selection committee members Norbert Kraft, M.D., Prof. Raye Kass, PhD, and James Kass, PhD possess understanding of different cultures as well as many years of experience working with extreme environments, and, of utmost importance, isolated habitats. They have professional experience in the field of Human Spaceflight (Group Dynamics/ Long duration Space Flight/ Medicine/Psychology/ Psycho-physiology) and extensive work with astronauts from JAXA, NASA, CSA, ESA, and RFSA.The commercial arm of Mars One, Mars One Ventures, is building a core team of experienced media professionals to further develop the Mars One brand and monetize it. The Mars One Ventures team is establishing strong commercial partnerships and generate income from a range of existing and new revenue sources. Together these will provide a strong basis for ongoing value creation. Short term focus areas include: Creating engaging (video) content. Most notably new media content about Mars One’s Astronaut Selection Round Three and the steps that follow. This will grow and engage Mars One’s audience; Expanding merchandise sales volumes by broadening the range of Mars One products. Additionally, higher sales volumes are expected to be reached by growing the number of website visitors due to increased interest in Mars One’s mission as a result of the Mars One astronaut selection program and foreseen mission progress; Seeking new brand partnerships, both short and long term. Mars One's upcoming steps forward, especially around astronaut selection, provide numerous opportunities for brand connections.Bas Lansdorp, CEO and co-founder of Mars One said “Arno and I founded Mars One almost six years ago. With limited funding and a small team we’ve worked very hard to get to the point where we are today. Now with the secured funding, 2017 will be the year where it all starts coming together, and we can finally take those next steps in our mission both the Mars One team and our supporters are eagerly looking forward to.”
Creating engaging (video) content. Most notably new media content about Mars One’s Astronaut Selection Round Three and the steps that follow. This will grow and engage Mars One’s audience; Expanding merchandise sales volumes by broadening the range of Mars One products. Additionally, higher sales volumes are expected to be reached by growing the number of website visitors due to increased interest in Mars One’s mission as a result of the Mars One astronaut selection program and foreseen mission progress; Seeking new brand partnerships, both short and long term. Mars One's upcoming steps forward, especially around astronaut selection, provide numerous opportunities for brand connections.
Mars One is now offering people the opportunity to purchase shares. Interestingly they say they need to raise €0.5M to meet the conditions for the previously announced €6M investment. More details in the attached ‘brochure’, including a first crewed flight in 2032 (so that date continues to move to the right faster than real time ...).
Okay, so I transcribed my interview with Lansdorp for my Bulgarian website ( space-bg.org ) and there are several important highlights I'd like to point out. 1. Basically Bas Lansdorp confirmed the already known schedule. There are no changes from what we knew in 2016. Robotic mission in 2022. A rover in 2026, cargo in 2029 and the first human mission is still scheduled for 2031. 2. I asked Lansdop whether reusing Phoenix for 2022 is still into the plans. He said yes. 3. Amazingly, there's one thing that I understood during the lecture - it's that there's still no commitment on what rockets to use. Mars One representatives were rather vague - they said they can use any rockets. There's no even firm decision about the first mission. This IMO is quite strange - time is running out.4. I asked Lansdorp how he would comment that SpaceX doesn't intend to man-rate Falcon Heavy, Red Dragon is being dropped and whether there's a plan to use the BFR, as well as whether heavy lift vehicles are necessary: His answer was: there will be a small space station which will be built into orbit. Heavy launch vehicles are needed to send cargo and the modules of the station, but the crew could be sent with any human-rated vehicle. After the crew arrives and docks to the small station in orbit, then the station could depart to Mars.5. Concerning inflatatable habitats. I asked him if he's in contact with Bigelow Aerospace. He said they haven't talked to Bigelow. However, he did mention another company - Thin Red Line in Canada. They assume they could be able to work with them.6. No plans for a reality show on Mars. No Big Brother. But they want to generate content, like - when Neil Armstong was filmed when he stepped down the ladder on the Moon.
Thin Red Line is a very interesting company!! http://www.thin-red-line.com/projects.html
Mit Entscheid vom 15.01.2019 hat das Zivilgericht Basel-Stadt über die Gesellschaft mit Wirkung ab dem 15.01.2019, 15.37 Uhr, den Konkurs eröffnet, womit sie aufgelöst ist.---via google translate; By decision of 15 January 2019, the Civil Court of the City of Basel declared the company bankrupt with effect from 15 January 2019, 3.37 p.m., thus dissolving it
“We’re working with the administrator and an investor to find a solution,” [Lansdorp] said in a Feb. 11 email, but said he couldn’t publicly discuss the status of those efforts at this time.Mars One has an unusual structure involving two organizations. One is the Mars One Foundation, a non-profit organization responsible for implementing its goal of establishing a permanent human settlement on Mars. The other was Mars One Ventures AG, which held the exclusive rights to monetize the project through such things as the sales of sponsorships and broadcasting rights, providing a share of those revenues to the Mars One Foundation.Lansdorp emphasized that the bankruptcy filing affected only the for-profit company, Mars One Ventures. However, with the collapse of that company, financing of the non-profit foundation is uncertain.