A Dutch company developing a reality-TV show about colonizing Mars is partnering with Colorado-based Lockheed Martin Space Systems to develop an unmanned spacecraft to land on the Red Planet.

The nonprofit venture, Mars One, announced the partnership Tuesday, providing it with access to a company with a long heritage of successful Mars missions.

“Lockheed is the most experienced company in landing on Mars,” said Bas Lansdorp, Mars One co-founder and CEO. “There is really no alternative if you want to organize a low-risk mission to Mars.”

Mars One is contracting Lockheed to conduct a concept study, worth $250,000, that will allow the company to tinker with its Phoenix mission design, a previous Mars lander that launched in 2007.

While the ultimate goal is a one-way human mission by 2025, this initial unmanned mission is scheduled for 2018 in order to first prove the technology’s safety.

Besides designing a lander for Mars One, Lockheed’s Waterton Canyon facility will guide its cost, scheduling and technical planning.

“We have a team currently involved in flying three orbiters around Mars and a lander in development,” said Ed Sedivy, a civil space chief engineer at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, who was the program manager for the Phoenix flight system.

While this is an early-phase partnership, Sedivy is confident that Lockheed’s design and support will lead to the final contract for building the spacecraft by next year.

“It is a great opportunity and we are excited about it for a couple of reasons,” Sedivy said. “International collaboration is increasingly growing in importance and really the collective ability to partner across oceans is going to be key to our engagement.”

Lockheed Martin Corp., a behemoth government contractor, has recently forged new types of partnerships outside its traditional, government contracts. Tuesday’s news comes in the wake of the company’s recent decision to close four U.S. facilities and lay off about 4,000 employees nationwide because of government budget cutbacks.

“I think Lockheed is thinking, ‘This may sound a little outlandish, but it doesn’t cost us anything to listen and do some exploratory work,’ ” said Marco Caceres, a senior space analyst for Teal Group. “The moment you start partnering these companies with solid companies, things might actually happen.”

Mars One also announced Tuesday a contract with United Kingdom-based Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. to develop a mission concept study for a Mars orbiter communications satellite to constantly relay information to Earth.

In conjunction with Tuesday’s announcement made at the National Press Club in Washington, Mars One launched an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign aiming to raise $400,000 by Jan. 25. So far, the venture has raised about $200,000 from individuals around the world but is expecting the bulk of its funding to come from academic and research institutions wishing to send science instruments to Mars, and from TV networks that may air the reality show.

As for the cast members, or astronauts, Lansdorp said his company has received applications from more than 200,000 applicants vying for citizenship on Mars.

Kristen Leigh Painter: 303-954-1638, kpainter@denverpost.com or twitter.com/kristenpainter