Mars One

Mars One's original concept included launching a robotic Mars lander and Mars orbiter as early as 2020, to be followed by a human crew of four in 2024, and one in 2026 which would not return to Earth. Although the announcement garnered much international publicity, the concept was criticized by scientists, engineers, and people in the aerospace industry. Mars One was said to be very short on funding, lacking critical concepts about hardware, life support, electrical power supply, and was criticized as glossing over logistics, medical concerns, and protection against space radiation. The concept was called a suicide mission in academia, spaceflight, and international news.

By February 2015, two conceptual studies were done by contractors. Despite the criticism and lack of funding, about 2,700 people applied to become one of the 24 finalists "to settle Mars".

In December 2013, Mars One announced its concept of a robotic precursor mission. Originally scheduled for launch in 2020, the roadmap later called for the launch to occur in 2022. If funded, the robotic lander would be "built by Lockheed Martin based on the design used for NASA's Phoenix and InSight landers, as well as a communications orbiter built by Surrey Satellite Technology Limited." In February 2015, Lockheed Martin and Surrey Satellite Technology confirmed that contracts on the initial study phase begun in late 2013 had run out and additional contracts had not been received for further progress on the robotic missions. Plans were set in motion to raise the US$200 million needed to support the initial robotic mission, but some critics did not find the economic plans to raise money from private investors and exclusive broadcasting rights to be sufficient to support the initial, or follow-on, mission(s).

Mars One selected a second-round pool of astronaut candidates in 2013. Mars One received interest from over 200,000 applicants for the first round. However, as candidate Joseph Roche asserted, the number of initial applicants who completed the application process was only 2,761, which Mars One later confirmed via YouTube video. The second-round pool was reduced to 705 candidates (418 men and 287 women) in the beginning of May 2014. 353 were removed due to personal considerations. After the medical physical requirement, 660 candidates remained. The third round of candidate selection concluded in 2015. The remaining 100 candidates, known as The Mars 100, consisted of 50 men and 50 women who were slated to move forward to the next round, where 40 individuals would have been chosen through an interview process.

On 30 June 2014, it was made public that Mars One was seeking financial investment through a bidding process to send company experiments to Mars. The experiment slots would go to the highest bidder and would include company-related ads, and the opportunity to have the company name on the robotic lander that was proposed to carry the experiments to Mars in 2018.

In a video posted on 19 March 2015, Lansdorp said that because of delays in funding the robotic precursor mission, the first crew would not land on Mars until 2027. …

The Mars One team consisted of Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Bas Lansdorp, Chief Technical Officer and co-founder Arnold Wielders, Chief Medical Officer Norbert Kraft, Mission Concept Artist Bryan Versteeg, Senior Marketing Strategist KC Frank, and Chief Information Officer Tom Van Braeckel.

Mars One's team of advisers consisted of over 30 industry and scientific experts, including Mason Peck, Peter Smith, James R. Kass, K.R. Sridhara Murthi, Esther Dyson, and Robert Zubrin.

Mars One was not an aerospace company and would not have manufactured hardware. Lansdorp assumed all major components would be available in the aerospace market, and said Mars One had identified at least one potential supplier for each component of the mission.

SpaceX mentioned in 2014 that they had been contacted by Mars One, but that accommodating Mars One requirements would require some additional work and that such action was not a part of the current focus of SpaceX. SpaceX had no contracts with Mars One. The first Mars One cargo mission to Mars was proposed to launch by 2022, followed by a crewed mission in 2024, but without funds, hardware, and without a launcher it did not happen.

A hypothetical crewed interplanetary spacecraft, for which there were no concept design studies, was to have been assembled in low Earth orbit and comprise two propellant modules: a Transit Living Module (discarded just before arrival at Mars) and a lander (see "Human Lander" below). In 2012, Mars One speculated that the Transit Living Module might potentially be designed and built by Thales Alenia Space.

A concept study was produced by Lockheed Martin for a demonstration lander based on the 2008 Phoenix lander.

In December 2013 Mars One awarded a contract to Surrey Satellite Technology for a study of the satellite technology required to provide 24/7 communication between Earth and the Mars base. Mars One proposed at least two satellites, one in areostationary orbit above Mars and a second at the Earth – Sun L4 or L5 point to relay the signal when Mars blocks the areosynchronous satellite from line of sight to Earth. It is possible that a third satellite would be required to relay the signal on the rare occasions when the Sun blocks the first relay satellite from line of sight with Earth.

An early notional crewed lander was shown in concept art as a 5-meter (16 ft)-diameter variant of SpaceX Red Dragon, but SpaceX declined to collaborate with Mars One. One mentioned supplier for the rover in 2012 was Astrobotic Technology.

On 12 March 2013, Paragon Space Development Corporation was contracted to develop concepts for life support and the Mars Surface Exploration Spacesuit System, which included the pressure suit and the Portable Life Support System (PLSS) that could have permitted survival outside the habitat. The suggested supplier of the suits was ILC Dover. …

The application was available from 22 April 2013 to 31 August 2013. This first application consisted of applicant's general information, a motivational letter, a résumé and a video. More than 200,000 people expressed interest. By 9 September 2013, 4,227 applicants had paid their registration fee and submitted public videos in which they made their case for going to Mars. The application fee varied from US$5 to US$75 (the amount depending on the relative wealth of the applicant's country).

The applicants selected in this round were declared on 30 December 2013. A total of 1,058 applicants from 107 countries were selected. The gender split was 586 males (55.4%) and 472 females (44.6%). Among the people that were selected to move on to round two, 159 had a master's degrees, 347 had bachelor's degrees and 29 had Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degrees. The majority of the applicants were under 36 years old and were well educated.

Medically cleared candidates were interviewed, and 50 men and 50 women from the total pool of 660 from around the world were selected to move on to the third round of the astronaut selection process:

Applicants were remotely interviewed and recorded by Mars One over a relatively short Skype/SparkHire call regarding Martian-related orbital, temp/pressure, geological and historical parameters and the specific elements of the Mars One one-way mission. Joseph Roche, one of the finalists, accused the selection process of being based on a point system that is primarily dependent on how much money each individual generated or gave to the Mars One organization, despite many of the round three selectees having not spent any money in the process, apart from the application fee, which varied as a function of each applicant's country Gross Domestic Product. Lansdorp acknowledged a "gamification" point system but denied that selection was based on money earned. Roche also stated that if paid for interviews, they are asked to donate 75% of the payment to Mars One. This was confirmed by Lansdorp.

The company had intended that the regional selection may be broadcast as a reality television show documenting group challenges, but no deal was reached with TV producers. The audience was to select one winner per region, and the experts could select additional participants, if needed, to continue to the international level. …