Mars One, the start-up that planned to colonise Mars, declared bankrupt

Mars One had plans to establish a permanent colony on Mars by 2027 - but not the kind of funding required to get there, let alone build a colony

Mars One, the start-up behind the controversial Martian colonisation project, has been declared bankrupt by a Swiss Civil Court.

Mars One had two entities — a Dutch not-for-profit Mars One Foundation and the Swiss publicly traded Mars One Ventures AG. It is the for-profit part that has been declared bankrupt by the court.

According to Engadget, the Mars One Ventures was declared bankrupt by a Basel court on 15th January. At that time, the company was valued at almost $100 million. This entire episode remained unnoticed until a Reddit user found the court filing and published documents online.

Mars One was founded in 2011 by Dutch entrepreneurs Bas Lansdorp and Arno Wielders. The ill-fated project aimed to take humans to Mars and establish a permanent colony by 2027.

Lansdorp had some novel plans to raise the funds for the multi-billion-dollar crewed mission -turning the whole affair into a reality TV show.

The whistle-blower also revealed that the company had no concrete plan or budget to go to Mars

When the start-up first announced the mission, it asked people interested in colonising Mars to submit their applications, videos, and also pay a fee to undergo the selection procedure. By 2013, about 80,000 people had shown interest in travelling to Mars, the company claimed.

However, in 2015 an insider at the company blew the whistle, claiming that, in fact, only 2,761 people had applied to be part of the Mars One mission, and that the individuals who were selected were those who had offered the most money. The whistle-blower also revealed that the company had no concrete plan or budget to go to Mars.

In July 2018, Mars One announced that it has signed an investment deal with Phoenix Enterprises AG, a Swiss investment company. Mars One said that Phoenix had pledged to fund the start-up with up to €12 million ($14 million) over a 12-month period.

Lansdorp told Engadget that the non-profit Mars One Foundation is still operating, although it won't be able to function without further funding. He said he tried hard to find a solution to financial problems, but things did not work as expected.

While the Mars One mission is dead now, the company's website says:

"Mars One aims to establish a permanent human settlement on Mars. Several unmanned missions will be completed, establishing a habitable settlement before carefully selected and trained crews will depart to Mars. Funding and implementing this plan will not be easy, it will be hard."