On the heels of Moon Express’s announcement that they’ll have a lander on the Moon by 2015, Mars One, another private space venture, has said it will land a craft on Mars by 2018.
While the company’s full vision is to create Earth’s first off world colony, before they get near that lofty goal they’ll have to prove they can safely reach our solar neighbor. To kick off that project Mars One has turned to crowdfunding in the hopes of partially financing a lander mission to the red planet.
According to Mars One, the crowd funded lander will also be accompanied by a communications satellite that will relay data and video captured by the lander back to Earth. Although the mission will only be a proof of concept Mars One is pulling out all of the stops and will hire Lockheed Martin to design the lander and Surrey Satellite Technology LTD to build the comms satellite.
If all goes to plan both the Mars One lander and its accompanying satellite will reach Mars sometime in 2018. Mars One is still holding fast to its commitment that it will construct a habitable, sustainable outpost between 2018 and 2022. By 2025 the company expects its first colonist to arrive with new members joining the group every two years.
Between both Moon Express and Mars One it appears that NASA, ESA and the Chinese Space Agency might have a few rivals in the off-world exploration game. For those of use who’ve always dreamed of space fairing adventure that’s welcome news. However, it can’t be denied that these agencies have been the bedrock and inspiration for these new private ventures.
Images and Video Courtesy of Mars One