To almost no one’s surprise, Mars One is done [Updated]

Enlarge / Mars One had some drawings. But that is about it. (credit: Mars One)

To the surprise of almost no one, Mars One appears to be dead. This project, founded in 2013, said it would raise funds from fees and marketing rights in order to send humans on a one-way mission to settle the Red Planet.

Now, thanks to a user on Reddit, we know that the effort has come to an apparent end. Mars One consists of two entities: the Dutch not-for-profit Mars One Foundation and the publicly traded, Swiss-based Mars One Ventures. A civil court based in Basel, Switzerland, opened bankruptcy proceedings on the latter company in mid-January. Efforts on Monday to contact officials with Mars One were not successful. (See update below).

To say this site was skeptical of Mars One would be putting it mildly. In May 2013-after more than 30,000 people around the world applied to become "astronauts" for Mars One-Ars' Lee Hutchinson scoffed at the venture, writing an article about some of the technical challenges it would face.

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