Mars One, Firm That Promised To Take Humans to Mars, Goes Bankrupt

Mars One had aimed to establish a permanent human settlement on Mars.

Mars One’s aim to establish a permanent human settlement on Mars had been criticised by experts.

(Photo Courtesy: MarsOne)

Mars One Ventures, the company that claimed to send humans to Mars has filed for bankruptcy, according to its liquidation listing spotted by a Reddit user, TechCrunch reported.

The user indicated that the company was declared bankrupt on 15 January and dissolved soon after.

According to a Google search, the enterprise was ruled as a scam by a Swiss court on 15 January, and a decision was settled to liquidate the organisation, pushing it towards bankruptcy in the process.

The company has two parts – a non-profit called the Mars One Foundation and a for-profit company known as Mars One Ventures. According to the TechCrunch report, a Swiss financial services company InFin Innovative Finance AG, took over Mars One Ventures in 2016.

After the takeover, Mars One put out a statement explaining how the plan was still on.

The firm was started by Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp. He told Engadget that the company is still looking to operate, but it is stalled unless it receives any infusion of funds.

Mars One posted an update on its website on 11 February, saying that the commercial arm is “currently working on a solution with an investor,” The Verge reported. It also said that the Mars One Ventures was bankrupt, but the non-profit arm was still functioning.

The bankruptcy is not unexpected. The Mars One concept had always been criticised as glossing over logistics and medical concerns, and lacking critical concepts about hardware. 

The concept had been called a suicide mission, both in academia, spaceflight science, and by international news.

Early on, the company had aimed for a $6 billion-budget to get its first crew of four astronauts to Mars, but never raised the money. Even if it had managed to collect $6 billion, most experts agreed that it wouldn’t be nearly enough funding to accomplish the task at hand, BGR India reported.

(With inputs from BGR, TechCrunch, Engadget and The Verge.)