Mars One CEO Bas Lansdorp (L) holds a press conference to announce the launch of astronaut selection for a Mars space mission project, in New York, April 22, 2013.
Lockheed Martin will support the Mars One mission, an audacious venture launched by Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp to colonize the red planet.
Although Lansdorp’s first statement during Tuesday’s press conference was that Lockheed would build Mars One’s first unmanned lander, it was later made clear that the U.S. aerospace titan had only signed up to produce a $250,000 “mission concept study” for the spacecraft, the online science journal phys.org reports.
Mars One’s estimated $6 billion project of putting humans on Mars and making them star in the first interplanetary reality TV show has gained massive attention, with 200,000 applicants willing to make the journey. There are skeptics, however, who point out the challenges of small living quarters, lack of provisions and the not unimportant potential inability to return to Earth.
In the press conference, Lansdorp also announced that the mission has been pushed back two years to 2025.
[phys.org]