Company promising trip of a lifetime to Mars goes bankrupt
The company that promised one-way trips to the Red Planet has gone bankrupt. Mars One filed for bankruptcy in mid-January in a Swiss court.
The company planned to establish a colony on Mars by 2025, using what the founder claimed would be existing technology. Researchers at MIT say this isn’t feasible, but that didn’t stop hundreds of thousands of people from applying for the chance to start a new life on Mars.
Context interviewed Karen Cummings, a Burlington woman who made the shortlist for the trip of a lifetime, last season.
“The opportunity to be part of a group of people who – much like the pioneers did a couple of hundred years ago, coming over from Europe and getting on board a ship not knowing what lay ahead, but something inside them compelled them to do this thing – I relate to them.”
Mars One’s business model was to pay for the project by creating a reality TV show about the experience and selling rights to television networks.
While that hasn’t panned out, Engadget reports that a mystery investor is in talks with Mars One to revive the project. Details will be revealed March 6th.
