Mars One mission ‘has a good chance’ to succeed
dubai — A project that aims to give four humans a one-way ticket to Mars has secured “almost” all the necessary funds it requires for the mission. Bas Lansdorp, founder of Mars One, told Khaleej Times that he believes there is a “good chance” that the mission will be successful.
Lansdorp is in Dubai to give a presentation about the mission.
The Mars One mission was first announced in 2012, with a launch date of 2022. However, due to lack of funding, the new departure date was set to 2031. Over 200,000 people from across the world volunteered to spend the rest of their lives on the Red Planet. Of these, 100 — including two UAE residents — have moved on to the next stage.
“The reason that our mission has a good chance for success is that we are proposing a plan of permanent settlement. We don’t have to develop the technology to get humans from Mars back to earth,” he said.
dubai — Funding for a project that aims to send four humans to Mars for permanent residence is nearly complete and the next stage will likely begin early next year, the chief of the Mars One mission told Khaleej Times.
Bas Lansdorp, founder of Mars One, is in Dubai to give a presentation about the mission, at the Dubai Technology Entrepreneur Centre at Silicon Oasis. He spoke to Khaleej Times about the mission’s current status and where it’s headed. The Mars One mission was first announced in 2012, with a launch date of 2022. However, due to lack of funding, the new departure date has been set to 2031. A whopping 200,000 applications were received from people worldwide, willing to spend the rest of their lives on the Red Planet. Now, just 100 competitors remain and two of them are UAE residents.
“In 2012, we were hoping to have the first humans on Mars by 2023. We’ve had quite a significant delay, mostly because of funding and that seems to have been resolved now. We are now listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange we have a €6 million investment agreement signed. Now, we’re really ready to take the next steps,” Lansdorp said.
“The money will only start flowing in when our shares start trading at the exchange again, which should happen in a couple of months. Then, we know the next steps we want to take, which is signing contracts with aerospace companies, hiring new people to work for the foundation and for the for-profit part of the company, and creating documentaries on the astronaut selection. We can project how many people will visit the website and how much that will yield through the sales of merchandise. We can show that both the foundation and Mars One ventures are going to be cash positive from around the first quarter of 2019.”
The mission has faced heavy criticism over the years from the scientific community, mainly over the high level of expertise and funding required for it.
When Khaleej Times addressed these concerns to Lansdorp, he said many of the obstacles the mission was facing have been resolved now.
“Any mission to Mars is a huge challenge. Nasa has been planning on going to Mars within 20 years, for 50 years now. It’s obviously very difficult. I can’t guarantee that we will make it but I do believe we have a good chance,” he said. “The reason that our mission has a good chance of success is that we are proposing a plan of permanent settlement. We don’t have to develop the technology to get humans from Mars back to earth. Even rockets from Earth have a five per cent chance of failure, but by eliminating these risks, it makes our mission feasible.”
The upcoming third round of the mission will aim to narrow down the 100 participants to just 40. They will be selected based on a series of psychological exams and team working skills.
Round four is when the remaining 40 candidates will start receiving an income from the mission. “We need to select people who are healthy and smart. We will train them for the skills they need to survive — engineering, medical and botanical skills. We can train anyone with a brain. The real challenging part of our mission is the fact that it is a permanent settlement. They will be on Mars for two years and then the second crew will join them, then the third crew and so on and that’s the biggest challenge,” he said.
“We’ll select teams of four and lock them up together under Martian conditions, where they have a lot of restrictions and to be together with a group is something they’ve never experienced, so, we need to see how they deal with that. From these, one group of four will be selected for the journey in the beginning.”
The mission also requires a Mars-like outpost for the training to take place and the deserts of the UAE are one of the places Lansdorp is considering for it.
sarwat@khaleejtimes.com