Washington: Around 200,000 people have filled up the application for joining an ambitious private mission to send a group of four men and women to Mars in 2023 to establish a permanent space colony on the Red Planet, Mars One CEO Bas Lansdorp has revealed.
The Mars One foundation announced on Tuesday that it has been able to secure lead suppliers for an unmanned mission launching in 2018, involving a robotic lander and a communications satellite, CNN reported.
The company said that Lockheed Martin has been contracted to study building the lander, and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. is going to develop a concept study for the satellite.
This first mission is going to demonstrate technology which is going to be involved in a permanent human settlement on Mars and if all is well then the first pioneers may land on the Red Planet by 2025.
The application period has now been closed, and by the end of this year, the company is planning to notify people who have made it to Round 2.
