Fwd: Mars One plans unmanned mission for 2018

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: December 11, 2013 8:33:55 AM CST
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Mars One plans unmanned mission for 2018

 

Lockheed Martin and SSTL selected for Mars One's first Unmanned Mission to Mars

Amersfoort, 10th December 2013 - Mars One has secured lead suppliers for its first mission to Mars. The mission, slated for a 2018 launch, will include a robotic lander and a communications satellite. Mars One has contracted Lockheed Martin and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) to develop mission concept studies. The Mars lander will be built by Lockheed Martin and the communications satellite will be built by SSTL.

This 2018 mission will be a demonstration mission and will provide proof of concept for some of the technologies that are important for a permanent human settlement on Mars; the ultimate goal of the non-profit Mars One foundation.

Bas Lansdorp, M.Sc., Mars One Co-founder and CEO stated, "We're very excited to have contracted Lockheed Martin and SSTL for our first mission to Mars. Both are significant players in their field of expertise and have outstanding track records. These will be the first private spacecraft to Mars and their successful arrival and operation will be a historic accomplishment."

The Lockheed Martin lander will be based on the successful 2007 NASA Phoenix mission spacecraft and will demonstrate some of the technologies required for the manned mission. Lockheed Martin has a distinct legacy of participating in nearly every NASA mission to Mars. For the Phoenix mission, the company designed, built, tested and operated the lander for NASA.

"This will be the first private mission to Mars and Lockheed Martin is very excited to have been contracted by Mars One. This is an ambitious project and we're already working on the mission concept study, starting with the proven design of Phoenix," said Ed Sedivy, Civil Space chief engineer at Lockheed Martin Space Systems. "Having managed the Phoenix spacecraft development, I can tell you, landing on Mars is challenging and a thrill and this is going to be a very exciting mission."

The lander will have the ability to scoop up Martian soil with a robotic arm similar to the Phoenix mission. A water experiment will extract water from the Martian soil. A power experiment will demonstrate the deployment and operation of thin-film solar panels on the surface, and a camera on the lander will be used to make continuous video recordings.

The demonstration satellite will provide a high bandwidth communications system in a Mars synchronous orbit and will be used to relay data and a live video feed from the lander on the surface of Mars back to Earth. Sir Martin Sweeting, Executive Chairman of SSTL said: "SSTL believes that the commercialisation of space exploration is vital in order to bring down costs and schedules and fuel progress. This study gives us an unprecedented opportunity to take our tried and tested approach and apply it to Mars One's imaginative and exhilarating challenge of sending humans to Mars through private investment."

The lander will also carry the winner of a worldwide university challenge that Mars One will launch in 2014 and items from several Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education challenge winners.

Arno Wielders, Co-founder and CTO of Mars One, said, "With our 2018 missions, Mars One brings the settlement of Mars one step closer to reality. The demonstration of water production on Mars is crucial for manned missions. The live video feed from the surface camera will bring Mars closer to people on Earth. And with the STEM education challenges and university competitions planned on our lander, we will enthuse a whole new generation for Mars exploration, even before our first crew lands."

Mars One decided to launch the lander and communications satellite in 2018, two years later than Mars One's original schedule. This new schedule provides time for the development for the two spacecraft and for student participation in STEM and university challenges.

Mars One's mission will not be financed by government-funded organizations. Instead, means of funding the mission include sponsorships and exclusive partnerships. Mars One is in discussion with several partners interested to participate in specific components of the mission or to partner in the STEM and university challenges. Mars One is also launching an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign that enables people to participate in this mission to Mars. Among other things, contributors will be granted voting rights for several mission decisions up for vote in the future, including the winners of the STEM and University Challenges.

"Landing the first humans on Mars should be everyone's mission and not just the mission of one country or organization" said Lansdorp. "Our 2018 mission will change the way people view space exploration as they will have the opportunity to participate. They will not only be spectators, but also participants. We think it is important to involve people from all over the world in what we're doing, and crowdfunding and crowdsourcing activities are important means to do that."

About Mars One

Mars One is a not-for-profit foundation that will establish a permanent human settlement on Mars. Human settlement on Mars is possible today with existing technologies. Mars One mission plan integrates components that are well tested and readily available from industry leaders worldwide. The first footprint on Mars and lives of the crew thereon will captivate and inspire generations; it is this public interest that will help finance this human mission to Mars.

More information about Lockheed Martin can be found at: www.lockheedmartin.com

More information about SSTL can be found at: www.sstl.co.uk

 

 

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Mars One plans unmanned mission for 2018 to start setting up colony on planet

The mission conduct experiments like making water on the surface of the planet and generating power with solar cells, paving the way for a human colony by 2025.

 

By Ananth Baliga   |   Dec. 10, 2013 at 4:15 PM 

 

Mars One plans to send an unmanned mission to the Red Planet to carry out experiments, paving the way for a planned human colony by 2025. (UPI/NASA)

| License Photo

Dec. 10 (UPI) -- Dutch company Mars One plans a reconnaissance mission for 2018, with the intention of setting up a human colony there by 2025.

The launch, which if successful will be the first privately funded mission of its kind, will test technology required to send a crew of astronauts on a one-way journey to the planet and possibly set up a colony on Mars.

Lockheed Martin is one of the first companies to come on board and will develop a lander similar to NASA's Phoenix probe, which landed on Mars in 2008.

Bas Lansdorp, CEO of Mars One said that this was "the first step in Mars One's overall plan of establishing a permanent human settlement on Mars."

The lander will be accompanied by a communication satellite developed by U.K. company Surrey Satellites. The satellite will orbit over Mars and transmit 24/7 video footage from the surface of the planet back to Earth. The lander will also carry out experiments to see whether water can be made on the surface of the planet and if thin solar films can harvest power from the sun.

Lansdorp believes the mission will cost no more than $6 billion but space law expert Michael Listner said it would likely cost around $1 trillion. Most of the funding is expected to come from Lasdorp, with the rest supplemented by corporate sponsorships and broadcast rights -- Mars One plans to turn the mission into a reality show following the lives of the astronauts through their mission. The company will also attempt to crowdfund part of its mission cost.

Mars One is also running a competition among schools and universities for space on the lander, inviting students to submit experiments ideas.

 

© 2013 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 

 

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Mars One Proposes First Privately Funded Robotic Mars Missions – 2018 Lander & Orbiter

by Ken Kremer on December 10, 2013

 

Mars One proposes concept based on NASA's Phoenix-like lander for first privately funded mission to the Red Planet slated to blastoff in 2018. This film solar array experiment would provide additional power. Credit: Mars One

The Mars One non-profit foundation that aims to establish a permanent human settlement on the Red Planet in the mid-2020's – with colonists volunteering for a one-way trip – took a major step forward today, Dec. 10, when they announced plans to launch the first ever privately funded space missions to Mars in 2018; as forerunners to gather critical measurements.

Bas Lansdorp, Mars One Co-founder and CEO announced plans to launch two missions to the Red Planet in 2018 – consisting of a robotic lander and an orbiting communications satellite; essential for transmitting the data collected on the Red Planet's surface.

And he has partnered with a pair of prestigious space companies to get started.

Lansdorp made the announcement at a news media briefing held today at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

"This will be the first private mission to Mars and the lander's successful arrival and operation will be a historic accomplishment," said Lansdorp.

Lansdorp stated that Mars One has signed contracts with Lockheed Martin and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) to develop mission concept studies – both are leading aerospace companies with vast experience in building spacecraft.

The 2018 Mars One lander would be a technology demonstrator and include a scoop, cameras and an exotic solar array to boost power and longevity.

The spacecraft structure would be based on NASA's highly successful 2007 Phoenix Mars lander – built by Lockheed Martin – which discovered and dug into water ice buried just inches beneath the topsoil in the northern polar regions of the Red Planet.

3 Footpads of Phoenix Mars Lander atop Martian Ice
Phoenix thrusters blasted away Martian soil and exposed water ice. Proposed Mars One 2018 mission will build a new Phoenix-like lander from scratch to test technologies for extracting water into a useable form for future human colonists. NASA's InSight 2016 mission will build a new Phoenix-like lander to peer deep into the Red Planet and investigate the nature and size of the mysterious Martian core. Credit: Ken Kremer, Marco Di Lorenzo, Phoenix Mission, NASA/JPL/UA/Max Planck Institute

"We are excited to have been selected by Mars One for this ambitious project and we're already working on the mission concept study, starting with the proven design of Phoenix," said Ed Sedivy, Civil Space chief engineer at Lockheed Martin Space Systems. "Having managed the Phoenix spacecraft development, I can tell you, landing on Mars is challenging and a thrill and this is going to be a very exciting mission."

Lockheed Martin engineers will work for the next 3 to 4 months to study mission concepts as well as how to stack the orbiter and lander on the launcher," Sedivy said at the briefing.

"The lander will provide proof of concept for some of the technologies that are important for a permanent human settlement on Mars," said Lansdorp.

Two examples involve experiments to extract water into a usable form and construction of a thin film solar array to provide additional power to the spacecraft and eventual human colonists.

It would include a Phoenix like scoop to collect soils for the water extraction experiment and cameras for continuous video recording transmitted by the accompanying orbiter.

Lockheed Martin is already under contract to build another Phoenix type lander for NASA that is slated to blastoff in 2016 on the InSight mission.

"They have a distinct legacy of participating in nearly every NASA mission to Mars," said Lansdorp.

So if sufficient funding is found it seems apparent that lander construction should be accomplished in time.

However, building the science instruments from scratch to meet the tight timeline could be quite challenging.

Given that the lander is planned to launch in barely over four years, I asked Sedivy if that was sufficient time to select, design and develop the new science instruments planned for the 2018 mission.

"A typical life cycle for the Mars program provides three and a half years from commitment to design to launch. So we have about 1 year to commit to preliminary design for the 2018 launch, so that's favorable," Sedivy told Universe Today.

"Now as for having enough time for selecting the suite of science experiments that's a little trickier. It depends on what's actually selected and the maturity of those elements selected."

"So we will provide Mars One with input as to where we see the development risks. And we'll help guide the instrument selections to have a high probability that they will be ready in time for the 2018 launch window," Sedivy told me.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=icN29cdmw_s

Video caption: Mars One Crowdfunding Campaign 2018 Mars Mission

For the 2018 lander, Mars One also plans to include an experiment from a worldwide university challenge and items from several Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) challenge winners.

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) was selected to studying orbiter concepts that will provide a high bandwidth communications system in a Mars synchronous orbit and will be used to relay data and a live video feed from the lander on the surface of Mars back to Earth, according to Sir Martin Sweeting, Executive Chairman of SSTL.

There are still many unknowns at this stage including the sources for all the significant funding required by Mars One to transform their concepts into actual flight hardware.

"Crowdfunding and crowdsourcing activities are important means to do that," said Lansdorp.

At the briefing, Lansdorp stated that Mars One has started an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign. The goal is to raise $400,000 by Jan. 25, 2014.

Link to – Indiegogo Mars One campaign

Mars One is looking for sponsors and partners. They also plan a TV show to help select the winners of the first human crew to Mars from over 200,000 applicants from countries spread all across Earth.

The preliminary 2018 mission study contracts with Lockheed and Surrey are valued at $260,000 and $80,000 respectively. 

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Bid to colonize Mars wins high-profile backing

By Robert MacPherson (AFP) 

Washington — A Dutch entrepreneur's bold quest to colonize Mars won high-profile support Tuesday from a US aerospace giant, although the timetable for putting humans on the red planet has been pushed back two years.

Mars One chief executive Bas Lansdorp said Lockheed Martin would, for $250,000, produce a "mission concept study" for an unmanned Martian lander that would precede the $6 billion manned mission.

Britain's Surrey Satellite Technology will meanwhile turn out a similar study, for 60,000 euros ($80,000), for a satellite that would hover in orbit over the lander and relay data and images back to Earth.

Plans call for the unmanned lander to reach Mars in 2018.

But as for the ultimate goal of putting humans on Mars, Lansdorp told reporters in Washington that "our first humans will land in 2025" -- two years later than he announced earlier this year.

The first four earthlings-turned-Martians would be joined every two years by additional groups of four or more astronauts -- all on one-way tickets to space's next frontier, he said.

Some 200,000 people have already applied to go to Mars, Lansdorp said, and they will learn by the end of this year whether they have passed the first-round selection process.

Lockheed Martin, which made $2.65 billion in fiscal 2011, mostly from defense contracts, built NASA's Phoenix robotic spacecraft that landed on Mars in 2008 in search of evidence of water.

Ed Sedivy, the company's chief engineer for civilian space projects, said the Mars One lander would likely look like Phoenix on the outside, albeit with a carpet of thin solar paneling running off its side.

Inside, however, it would be fitted with the latest space electronics, said Sedivy, who was previously Lockheed Martin's point man for the Phoenix mission.

Although Lansdorp opened his press conference by saying "Lockheed Martin will build the first Mars lander" for Mars One, Sedivy said it had been contracted so far only for the concept study.

Besides conducting experiments, including a search for possible ways of creating water on Mars' surface, the lander will carry letters from youngsters on Earth to welcome the first Martian colonists, Lansdorp said.

He also envisioned a camera dangling from a balloon several hundred meters above the lander that would beam images back to Earth in real time.

Lansdorp expects it will cost $6 billion to put the first humans on Mars, where they will be expected to star in the galaxy's first interplanetary reality TV show.

He expects a big chunk of funding to come from "sponsors and partners" such as universities with experiments they'd like to see piggy-backing onto the mission.

A range of potential pitfalls might prevent Mars One from becoming a reality, including an inability to return to Earth, the small living quarters and the lack of food and water on Mars.

That assumes, of course, that radiation endured by its astronauts during the trip is not lethal, and that their spacecraft will be able to negotiate a volatile landing onto the harsh Martian landscape.

The project has garnered plenty of skeptics, but its supporters include Dutch Nobel laureate Gerard 't Hooft, who won the 1999 prize for physics and appears in a video for Mars One on the Indiegogo crowd-funding website.

The world's space agencies have only managed to send unmanned robotic rovers to Mars so far, the latest being NASA's $2.5 billion Curiosity rover, which touched down in August 2012.

If it succeeds, Mars One would be the first private-sector initiative, manned or unmanned, to explore another planet.

 

Copyright © 2013 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. 

 

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Mars One is one step closer to its dream of colonizing Mars

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By Deborah Netburn

December 10, 2013, 2:42 p.m.

Mars One is a plucky not-for-profit organization that wants to turn the colonization of Mars into a worldwide reality TV show -- and it appears to be making headway.

On Tuesday, Mars One announced it had contracted Lockheed Martin to develop a mission concept study for a Mars lander to be launched in 2018.

(Click through the photo gallery above to see an image of the proposed lander).

Lockheed Martin is the company that tested and operated the 2007 Phoenix Mars lander for NASA.

"We're already working on the mission concept study, starting with the proven design of Phoenix," said Ed Sedivy, Lockheed Martin's civil space chief engineer in a statement. "Having managed the Phoenix spacecraft development, I can tell you, landing on Mars is challenging and a thrill."

Mars One made headlines this spring when it began accepting applications for the first round of Mars colonizers. Anyone on the planet over the age of 18 was invited to apply, regardless of whether they had previous experience in engineering, medicine, planetary science or really anything.

Applicants were asked to submit videos in which they explained why they wanted to go to Mars and how they felt about never returning to Earth. (Mars One does not envision sending anyone home.)

They were also asked to describe their sense of humor. 

By the time Mars One stopped accepting applications in September, 202,000 people had expressed interest in being among the first humans to step foot on the Red Planet.

Eventually, Mars One will whittle down those applicants to about 40. Those selected will train in groups for seven years. And, if everything goes according to plan, at that time a global  audience will vote on which group will go to Mars.

In the meantime, Mars One needs to prove that a Mars colony is technologically possible, and that's where the proposed lander comes in. 

The unmanned lander that Mars One hopes to launch in 2018 -- the first private unmanned mission to Mars -- will be equipped with a suite of tools to prove that the Red Planet would be habitable for humans. Specifically, it will demonstrate how humans might extract water from the Martian soil.

"The demonstration of water production on Mars is crucial for manned missions," said Mars One co-founder Arno Wielders in a statement.

And because of the whole reality-TV angle, the lander also will be equipped with a video camera for continuous documentation.

Mars One announced it was working with Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. to create a demonstration satellite to relay a live video feed from Mars back to Earth.

If you are wondering how Mars One plans to pay for its ambitious plans, you are not alone. In a news release, the nonprofit said it would look for funding in exclusive partnerships and sponsorships, as well as an Indiegogo campaign. 

Copyright © 2013, Los Angeles Times

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Mars Colony Project Unveils 1st Private Robotic Mission to Red Planet

by Tanya Lewis, Staff Writer   |   December 10, 2013 05:23pm ET

An artist's depiction of the private Mars One lander for a unmanned mission to Mars slated to launch in 2018. The design is based on NASA's Phoenix Mars lander. Credit: Mars One Foundation View full size image

WASHINGTON — An ambitious project that aims to send volunteers on a one-way trip to Mars unveiled plans for the first private unmanned mission to the Red Planet today (Dec. 10), a robotic vanguard to human colonization that will launch in 2018.

The non-profit Mars One foundation has inked deals with Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) to draw up mission concept studies for the private robotic flight to Mars. Under the plan, Lockheed Martin will build the Mars One lander, and SSTL will build a communications satellite, the companies' representatives announced at a news conference here today.

"We're very excited to have contracted Lockheed Martin and SSTL for our first mission to Mars," Mars One co-founder and CEO Bas Lansdorp said in a statement. "These will be the first private spacecraft to Mars and their successful arrival and operation will be a historic accomplishment." [Photos: How Mars One Wants to Colonize the Red Planet]

The goal of the Mars One mission is to establish a permanent settlement on Mars. The nonprofit aims to send groups of four people to the Red Planet every two years, with the first group slated to launch in 2022. Lockheed Martin and SSTL have partnered with Mars One for the initial unmanned supply mission, planned to launch in 2018 — two years later than initially planned.

The Dutch nonprofit Mars One aims to land four colonists on the Red Planet in 2023. Do you want to be one of them?

"This is an ambitious project and we're already working on the mission concept study, starting with the proven design of Phoenix," Ed Sedivy, civil space chief engineer at Lockheed Martin, said in a statement.

Lockheed Martin designed, built and operated the lander for NASA's 2007 Phoenix Mars lander mission to look for water ice beneath the surface of the Martian arctic, and the Mars One Lander will be based on the design of Phoenix.

"It is the first privately funded planetary exploration mission. That is really, really cool," Sedivy said of the project during today's unveiling here. "This is the dawn of the new era of space exploration."

The Mars One lander will have a robotic arm capable of scooping up soil, just like the Phoenix lander; an experiment to extract water from the soil; a power experiment to demonstrate the use of thin-film solar panels on the planet's surface; and a camera for continuous video recording.

The lander will also carry aboard the winner of a worldwide university challenge that Mars One plans to launch in 2014, as well as several Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education challenge winners.

The satellite, to be built by SSTL, will be in synchronous orbit around Mars and will provide a high-bandwidth link to relay data and live video from the lander back to Earth.

"This study gives us an unprecedented opportunity to take our tried and tested approach and apply it to Mars One's imaginative and exhilarating challenge of sending humans to Mars through private investment," Sir Martin Sweeting, executive chairman of SSTL, said in a statement.

All components of Mars One's settlement are slated to reach their destination by 2021. The hardware includes two living units, two life-support units, a second supply unit and two rovers.
Credit: Bryan Versteeg/Mars One

Mars One invited anyone over age 18 to apply to be an astronaut. About 165,000 people answered the first call for applications, which closed at the end of August. There will be four rounds of selection before the finalists are chosen.

Mars One estimates it will cost $6 billion to get the first four people to Mars, and $4 billion for each subsequent trip. The funding will come from sponsorships and exclusive partnerships, and the company recently announced a reality TV show to pay for the project.

"You can't go to Mars on excitement," Lansdorp said during today's press unveiling. "We are more confident than ever that we can make the first unmanned mission a reality. This is probably the most important and most difficult step of getting humans to Mars."

The foundation is also launching a crowd-funding campaign through the website Indiegogo. Contributors will earn the right to vote on several mission decisions, including the winners of STEM and university challenges, Mars One says.

"Our 2018 mission will change the way people view space exploration as they will have the opportunity to participate," Lansdorp said. "They will not only be spectators, but also participants."

You can see the Mars One Indiegogo campaign here: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/mars-one-first-private-mars-mission-in-2018

Editor's Note: This story was updated at 5:20 p.m. ET to include additional comments from Mars One officials from today's official unveiling of the 2018 Mars One lander project.

 

Copyright © 2013 TechMediaNetwork.com All rights reserved.

 

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ByWilliam Harwood CBS News December 10, 2013, 4: 59 PM

Mars One plans unmanned mission for 2018

Artist's depiction of Mars One astronauts and their colony on the Red Planet. Mars One / Bryan Versteeg

 

A privately funded unmanned Mars mission will launch in 2018, officials with the non-profit Mars One foundation announced Tuesday. The mission will include an orbiting communications relay station, a lander equipped with a robotic arm, water generating gear, experimental thin-film solar panels and student experiments.

Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp, Mars One founder and CEO, told reporters the foundation has signed contracts with two major aerospace firms, Lockheed Martin and Surrey Satellite Technology, to develop mission concept studies, a first step toward eventual construction and launch.

 

The lander will be based on the design of the 2007 Phoenix Mars lander that Lockheed Martin developed for NASA. The communications satellite -- the first such "geostationary" comsat in orbit around the red planet -- will incorporate technologies developed by Surrey and used in a variety of operational spacecraft.

 

 

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 Lansdorp said the Lockheed Martin contract was valued at slightly more than $250,000 while the Surrey agreement came to about $60,000.

 

Development of the actual spacecraft and the rocket, or rockets, needed to launch them will be funded primarily by sponsors and corporate donors, Lansdorp said, along with donations from the public through a crowd-funding campaign.

 

He would not disclose internal projections for the mission's eventual cost other than to tell reporters he expected it to be less than NASA's next Mars lander, the $425 million Phoenix-derived Insight mission scheduled for launch in 2016.

 

The unmanned Mars One technology demonstration mission is a precursor to the foundation's seemingly quixotic long-range goal of launching humans to Mars starting in 2025, assuming funding and technology hurdles can be overcome. The foundation envisions launching follow-on crews of four astronauts every two years to establish a permanent outpost on the red planet. 

 

 

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 When Mars One started taking applications for future Mars travel last spring. Lansdorp said the foundation had received more than 200,000 applications from would-be astronauts and that those selected for the next round of evaluations would be announced before the end of the year. 

 

The Mars One mission concept calls for one-way flights by volunteers who would spend the rest of their lives on the red planet.

 

Previous estimates for the cost of a manned mission to Mars start at $100 billion. But those estimates include landers and rockets to return visiting crews to Earth, rather than a lifetime Mars colony. 

 

In the meantime, Lansdorp said, the focus is on getting the 2018 mission off the ground.

 

Ed Sedivy, chief engineer of civil space operations at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, said company engineers and designers with experience building NASA's Mars orbiters and landers already were working on the Mars One 2018 mission concept study.

 

The Mars One project "is the first privately funded planetary exploration mission," he said. "If you think about that, that is really, really cool. ... This is the dawn of a new era of space exploration. Private funding that supports the exploration of other planets is a concept that is really exciting."

 

Martin Sweeting, Surrey Satellite Technology chairman, said his company has been "interested in driving the cost of exploration down and increasing the tempo of exploration and widening participation for many years."

 

"We've been doing work in the past on projects to look at supporting sustained human habitation on the moon, for example," he said. "Mars One is really a logical step for us, and something we find exciting in trying to develop."

 

 

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Mars rover Curiosity: Images from the Red Planet

 While the 2018 mission architecture is still being assessed, Sedivy said the least expensive option would be to launch the Mars One lander and orbiter on a single rocket. But that will depend on how much separation is required between the orbiter's arrival and the lander's descent to the surface.

 

The Mars One communications satellite will be the first martian spacecraft operating in a geostationary orbit that will permit continuous observations of the landing site.

 

"It will function as a data relay from the surface of Mars to Earth," Lansdorp said. "It will be in a fixed location over the Mars lander, which will allow a live video feed from the surface of Mars to Earth. We expect this will bring [Mars] a lot closer to everybody on Earth. Anyone here on Earth can log into our website and see what's it like on Mars."

 

While the comsat will be "nice to have," providing a continuous link between the lander and the public on Earth, "it's crucial for our manned missions because then we really need to have that 24/7 connection between Earth and Mars," Lansdorp said.

 

The Phoenix-derivative lander will be equipped with a robot arm and camera that will provide a live video feed from the surface, relayed back to Earth by the Mars One communications satellite.

 

"It will carry a weather experiment and it will demonstrate the production of liquid water on the surface of Mars," Lansdorp said. "And it will carry a power experiment that will deploy a thin film solar panel on the surface of Mars. We make use of thin film solar panels for our human mission, and this will be the demonstrator of that."

 

A key element of the 2018 mission is participation by students around the world. Mars One plans an international contest to select an experiment designed by university students that will be launched aboard the lander.

 

The foundation also plans to organize STEM-type challenges to involve younger students in a bid to "inspire kids into Mars exploration," Lansdorp said.

 

"This is very important for Mars One, because with these challenges on our unmanned missions we can inspire young students even before we send humans to Mars, which will, of course, be an even bigger source of inspiration on Earth."

 

 

© 2013 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.          

 

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