Mars One, the Dutch firm hoping to colonise the Red Planet, has just a few months to decide whether it will launch its first unmanned mission to Mars in 2018. If it misses the deadline, the entire high-risk enterprise will be delayed another two years.
While national space agencies think manned missions to Mars are something for the distant future, Mars One says it can establish a permanent colony on the planet by the mid-2020s, funded by turning the whole thing into a reality TV show and selling the media rights.
In 2013 the firm announced a partnership with aerospace firm Lockheed Martin to build an unmanned Mars lander based on an old NASA probe, Phoenix, that would extract water from the surface and test solar panel technology. It also signed a separate contract with UK firm Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) to build a communications satellite to relay live video from the lander.
But yesterday, SpaceNews reported that work on these two missions had been suspended – a claim Mars One CEO Bas Lansdorp denies. "We're currently reviewing the results of the work our suppliers did and are preparing for the next contracts, so we're simply in between contracts," he says. "The 2018 robotic mission is still the very very highest priority for Mars One."
Tough timeline
But meeting the 2018 launch date will be tricky, he admits. "If we cannot make this deadline we are always flexible in moving another two years," he says. "That's a decision that we will have to make before the summer." The Mars One timeline has already slipped, as initial plans called for a communications satellite in 2014.
Lockheed Martin and SSTL confirmed to New Scientist that they have completed their initial concept study contracts with Mars One and are awaiting notification to proceed to the next step. "That's normal, that's how these things go," says SSTL's Joelle Sykes. "Just because you've done the study, doesn't mean you will actually get the work, it might go out to tender to other companies."
Meanwhile, Mars One recently announced it has narrowed the pool of applicants down to 100 astronaut candidates who will start training for what will be a one-way trip, assuming it gets off the ground. Lansdorp says the firm will start building a simulation of the astronauts' future Mars base in the Netherlands later this year. "We are in negotiation with the construction company, but the actual construction hasn't started."
The plan to sell the TV rights is on shaky ground, too. Lansdorp says a deal with media company Endemol, which produced Big Brother, has fallen through, and it will instead work with an as-yet unnamed company to produce a documentary series.
Clarification, 20/02/2015: When this article was first published, it implied Mars One was working with a specific media company. This has now been amended.
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