The Mars One project intends to bring individuals that will permanently man stations in the Red Planet. (Photo : Mars One)
Mars One has announced it will not meet its self-imposed deadline to land a robotic spacecraft in 2018.
The bad news comes a few days after it revealed the 100 finalists in its search for 24 people to set foot on Mars as part of its reality TV program/space program project. It's the latest setback for the overly ambitious project that could be running short of money after Mars One failed to raise $400,000 for the mission in 2014 on Kickstarter.
Mars One CEO Bas Lansdorp tried to put a positive spin on the delay of the probe launch. The delay means Mars One has just months to decide whether to go for its first scheduled launch in 2018 to exploit an advantageous launch window or face a two-year delay when that launch window will again reappear.
"If we cannot make this deadline we are always flexible in moving another two years," said Lansdorp. "That's a decision that we will have to make before the summer."
Under Mars One's current plans, the 2018 mission consists of an unmanned probe that will land a robotic craft on the surface and place a British-made communications satellite in orbit around Mars, according to The Huffington Post.
Work on the missions is already facing problems, said New Scientist. Lockheed Martin, which completed a concept study for the mission, and Surrey Satellites that designed the Mars orbiter have suspended work on the Mars One mission.
"Lockheed Martin has concluded the initial contract with Mars One in which we performed mission formulation studies and developed payload interface specifications to support the selection of a payload suite for the 2018 Mars robotic lander," the company. "We continue to maintain an open channel of communications with Mars One and await initiation of the next phase of the program."
Of the 100 finalists, 24 will be selected to travel to Marsto set up a colony. The journey will be a one-way trip as the colonists are expected to live and die on Mars. Some scientists are ridiculing the reality TV show space program as a suicide mission.
A group of PhD students from MIT reviewed the Mars One plan and concluded it will only take 68 days for the first person to die.
A reality TV show will provide funds for much of the mission, or so Mars One hopes.
