Amersfoort, January 5, 2017 - Mars One today confirms its short term mission and business plans for 2017. In December 2016, a €6 million investment from World Stock & Bond Trade Limited was announced of which a first of six equal batches will be received end of January 2017. This will allow Mars One to take the next steps to move the mission to Mars forward, to strengthen its capital and liquidity position, and to boost the exposure and commercial activities. Mars One expects to achieve this by expanding the teams for the Mars One entities with experienced team members: the not-for-profit Mars One Foundation and the publicly trading Mars One Ventures AG [FRA: KCC], ISIN: CH0132106482.

“We’ll add several team members with experience in implementing Mars missions” said Arno Wielders, Mars One’s CTO and Co-founder. “These new team members will help us further shape and manage the technical road map for our mission to Mars. In space development terms, our mission design is currently in Phase A. Completing all conceptual design studies will result in a firm baseline design and improved cost figures. Phase B will be the detailed design of all elements needed to safely land humans on Mars and keep them alive. Completing that development phase will allow Mars One to move the mission forward to Phases C and D: all hardware is built, manufactured, integrated and tested, and finally launched to Mars. That should lead to full system readiness on the surface of Mars, giving the green light for the first crew of four astronauts to start their journey to Mars,” explains Wielders.

The first three conceptual design studies in Mars One’s current mission development phase have been completed by Paragon Space Development Corporation and Lockheed Martin. Suppliers with relevant experience will be contracted to perform conceptual design studies for all other major (sub)-systems required for the permanent settlement mission. These studies demand 500 to 2500 man-hours each leading to a comprehensive technical concept design of the various components of the mission to Mars.

In addition to expanding team on the engineering side of the mission, the Mars One Foundation will hire team members with experience in crew selection and training. Mars One is currently preparing for the next selection rounds to trim down the current group of 100 Round Three astronaut candidates. Up to six groups of four crew members will become full time employees of Mars One to start training for the mission. The design for the next rounds is ready and the next steps are determining the dates and locations, expanding the team of selection and training specialists, and logistics. “New team members will help the Mars One selection committee with the overall progress of the upcoming selection rounds and training, including for example the execution and evaluation of the astronaut selection activities, and guiding the teams,” says Norbert Kraft, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Mars One.

Mars One selection committee members Norbert Kraft, M.D., Prof. Raye Kass, PhD, and James Kass, PhD possess understanding of different cultures as well as many years of experience working with extreme environments, and, of utmost importance, isolated habitats. They have professional experience in the field of Human Spaceflight (Group Dynamics/ Long duration Space Flight/ Medicine/Psychology/ Psycho-physiology) and extensive work with astronauts from JAXA, NASA, CSA, ESA, and RFSA.

The commercial arm of Mars One, Mars One Ventures, is building a core team of experienced media professionals to further develop the Mars One brand and monetize it. The Mars One Ventures team is establishing strong commercial partnerships and generate income from a range of existing and new revenue sources. Together these will provide a strong basis for ongoing value creation. Short term focus areas include:

Creating engaging (video) content. Most notably new media content about Mars One’s Astronaut Selection Round Three and the steps that follow. This will grow and engage Mars One’s audience;

Expanding merchandise sales volumes by broadening the range of Mars One products. Additionally, higher sales volumes are expected to be reached by growing the number of website visitors due to increased interest in Mars One’s mission as a result of the Mars One astronaut selection program and foreseen mission progress;

Seeking new brand partnerships, both short and long term. Mars One's upcoming steps forward, especially around astronaut selection, provide numerous opportunities for brand connections.

Bas Lansdorp, CEO and co-founder of Mars One said “Arno and I founded Mars One almost six years ago. With limited funding and a small team we’ve worked very hard to get to the point where we are today. Now with the secured funding, 2017 will be the year where it all starts coming together, and we can finally take those next steps in our mission both the Mars One team and our supporters are eagerly looking forward to.”

About Mars One

Mars One aims to establish a permanent human settlement on Mars. Before carefully selected and trained crews will depart to Mars, several unmanned missions will be completed, establishing a habitable settlement waiting for the first astronauts to arrive.



Mars One consists of two entities: the not-for-profit Mars One Foundation and the publicly trading Mars One Ventures AG [FRA: KCC], ISIN: CH0132106482. The Mars One Foundation implements, and manages the mission and owns the mission hardware. It also selects and trains the crews, and is building an ever growing community of experts and supporters that follow the progress of the mission and contribute to it.



Mars One Ventures holds the exclusive monetization rights around the Mars One mission. There are many revenue possibilities around the mission to Mars: merchandise, ads on video content, broadcasting rights, partnerships, Intellectual Property, events, games, apps, and many more.



For more information about Mars One, please visit www.mars-one.com.













