Mars not Gunnar happen
Company behind Red Planet trip files for bankruptcy
FROM THE DAY MARS ONE GAVE UP THE IDEA TO GET ITS FUNDING THROUGH DONATIONS OR SELLING BROADCASTING RIGHTS, I THOUGHT THAT THE PROJECT WAS DOOMED GUNNAR PREHL
THE dream of spending the rest of his life on the Red Planet looks to be over for a Cairns man who had been short-listed for a failed mission to Mars.
Mars One, the Dutch company that wanted to establish a permanent human settlement on Earth’s next-door neighbour, has filed for bankruptcy.
The company, over the past decade, had initially hoped to build capital to fund its ambitious mission through donations, merchandise sales and contracts with media companies.
However funding, reportedly via a contract from Lockheed Martin and Surrey Satellite Technology for a lander and an orbiter, ran out.
Former Cairns chef Gunnar Prehl, who was selected alongside 99 other recruits from around the world for the oneway trip to Mars, said he was quite sad to hear the company had gone into administration.
But, he said, he was not really surprised.
“I’m not a fan of the greedy philosophies of stock markets and, from the day Mars One gave up the idea to get its funding through donations or sell- ing broadcasting rights, I thought that the project was doomed,” he said.
Mr Prehl, who now works as an aged and disability care worker, said it was unfortunate that any societal progress was based on funding and profits, rather than imagination and natural resources.