Mission

This is a subtopic of the main page, Aspiring Martians Wiki.

In 2011, the founding members of the Mars One team came together to develop a strategic plan for taking humanity to Mars. That first year yielded the completion of a feasibility study, calling upon experts from space agencies and private aerospace corporations around the world. Written letters of interest in support of the Mars One plan were received. In this first-stage analysis, Mars One incorporated technical, financial, social-psychological and ethical components into its foundation plan.

This tremendous undertaking can only be achieved through the careful, deliberate movement through both the technical and media stages, gaining momentum and credibility with each completed step. The first effort is to award contracts to the already engaged aerospace suppliers, thus solidifying the Mission as technically feasible. At the same time, Mars One will launch the Astronaut Selection Program, open to anyone in the world.

Not unlike the televised events of the Olympic Games, Mars One intends to maintain an on-going, global media event, from astronaut selection to training, from lift-off to landing, to provide primary funding for this next giant leap for mankind.

Why would you like to go to Mars?
Several candidates were solicited on 31 January 2013 for a 1000 word description of the reason they wanted to go to Mars. Mars One selected candidates who provided interesting answers to give an interview for the One Way Astronaut documentary trailer, including Stephan Guenther and Beatriz Roriz.

Astronaut Qualifications
On 29 March 2013, Mars One released the set of qualifications they considered essential for any candidate. Prof. Dr. Raye Kass, Professor of Applied Human Sciences at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, currently serves as an advisor to Mars One and helped develop the following list of 5 characteristics:

Qualifications Table

Application Beta test
Some people that had previously shown interest in Mars One Were given the opportunity to submit their applications up to a week before it was released to the public. Less than ten applicants took advantage of the beta opportunity, but each benefited greatly from the initial surge of interest from the public when the application was made public.

Astronaut application released to public
Mars One released the application to the public on 22 April 2013, exactly 10 years before the first four humans will land on Mars. Within two weeks of releasing the application, there were over 78,000 applicants across the world. People in countries from Argentina and India to China and the United States had, at a minimum, created an account to submit an application to Mars One, with over 700 applications viewable to the public by the end of May.

Selection Process
See Selection Process

Astronaut Training
See Training

Crew Composition
See Crew Composition

Technology
See Mission Technology

Timeline

 * 2011: Founders Bas Lansdorop and Arno Wielders lay the foundation for the Mars One Mission Plan. Primary infrastructure providers and top-tier aerospace suppliers are engaged to work with an apolotical organization to conduct a manned mission to Mars.
 * 2013: The astronaut selection process beings. 80,000 people apply after just one month of the opening for Round 1. Mars One builds a replica of the Mars settlement on Earth. Selection and training of the future astronauts will be broadcast worldwide.
 * 2014: Preparations for the supply missions, the first to launch in 2016, are set in motion. Production begins on the first Mars communication satellite.
 * 2016: Supply mission is launched in January and will land close to the expected outpost on Mars in October of this year. It will be carrying 2500kg of spare parts, solar photovoltaic panels, and general supplies.
 * 2018: The first settlement rover lands on Mars to find the ideal spot for the outpost within the desired area. Although the rover has some degree of autonomy, it will be controlled mainly from Earth. Video stream will be broadcast 24/7/365.
 * 2021: All components of the settlement arrive on Mars in six separate landers: 2 living units, 2 life support units, second supply unit, and another rover. The two rovers will take all the components to the settlement location and prepare for the arrival of the Mars One team.
 * 2022: All water, oxygen, and atmosphere production will be ready by early this year. Each component of the Mars Transit Vehicle is launched into low Earth orbit and linked. In September, history is made as the first four astronauts are launched on the journey to Mars.
 * 2023: Mars Team One astronauts become the first humans to land on Mars. Their adventre is broadcast "live" 24/7/365 back on Earth. A few weeks later, 5 cargo mission arrive bringing additional living units, life support units, and a third rover.
 * 2025: In June, Mars Team Two arrives. They are received by their predecessors who have completed the construction of the settlement. An additional four astronauts will arrive every two years to the outpost as it grows its capacity for scientific research, experiments, and exploration of Mars.

Location
Because of the water requirement and subsurface ice, the Rover will select the location for the settlement primarily based on the water content in the soil. We expect this to be at a latitude of between 40 and 45 degrees North.

Power
Power will be ready for the astronauts when they land using the Life Support Unit. It is generated through the application of thin film solar photovoltaic panels. These are flexible and can be rolled up for compact transportation to Mars. These solar panel arrays will be pulled from the Life Support Units by the rovers and set up well in advance of the astronaut's arrival.

Water
Potable water will be created through the heating of water ice in the local ground soil. About 60 kilograms of soil is loaded into a container within the Life Support Unit by the Rover and heated to evaporate the water. The water is condensed and the dry soil returned to its origin. A portion of the water is stored while a portion is used to produce oxygen. The Life Support Unit is able to collect 1500 liters water and 120 kilograms oxygen in 500 days time.

Breathable Air
In addition to the oxygen produced from the dirt extraction described above, nitrogen and argon gas are extracted from the Mars atmosphere and injected into the habitable space as inert gases. Remember, 80% of what we breathe on Earth is the element nitrogen.

Journey to Mars
See Journey to Mars

Cost
Mars One estimates the cost of putting the first four people on Mars at about six billion US dollars. This number has been determined as follows: The mission design was split up into a number of very large components, as described in the technology section. Mars One identified one or more potential suppliers for each component, and discussed its cost during the meetings we had with the companies.

It needs to be stressed that the figure of six billion dollars is an estimate. For some of the components, the cost can be projected quite accurately. The price of a Falcon Heavy launcher for example, which Mars One plans to use, is mentioned on Space Exploration Technologies' website. For other components, like the rover, the cost is trickier to pin down. Mars One has also made estimates of the operational expenditures. The six billion figure is the cost of all the hardware combined, plus the operational expenditures, plus margins.

Mars One is now looking for a round of funding to pay our potential suppliers to perform conceptual design studies, which will result in more accurate calculations of the cost of each component and its mass. With the results of these studies, Mars One will have a much better indication of the mission's price and will have a far more robust and detailed case to present for a new round of sponsorship and/or investment.

Funding
See Funding

Reality TV
See Reality TV