Company Will Not Be Sending Humans To The Red Planet

Mars One Ventures, which touted itself as planning to send humans to Mars, very quietly went bankrupt in January. And we might still not know but for the investigative skills of Swiss newspaper and a Redditor.

Mars One Ventures was the for-profit arm of Mars One mission. It had been created by Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp with the stated goal of colonizing Mars. But on January 15th, the Basel court declared Mars One Ventures bankrupt. It was listed as a dormant company with less than $26,000 in its bank accounts, according to a report from Engadget.

There is also a non-profit Mars One Foundation. Lansdorp, told Engadget that the non-profit still exists, but has run out of money.

Lansdorp had the unusual funding model of creating a reality TV show about the colonization process. Documentaries were made about the "colonists" who were selected from a pool of volunteers which were sold to broadcasters. There was also a plan to bring potential colonists together in a "desert location to test their team skills."

But despite Lasdorf's belief that it could be done, the company could not raise enough money selling documentaries to broadcasters to mount a colonization mission to Mars. The Redditor went so far as to call the entire thing a "clear scam from day 1."

(Image from file)

FMI: Reddit, Engadget