Mars One’s shipment of humans to the Red Planet is delayed two years

An artist's rendering of man's glorious future on Mars.

Mars One

The timeline for Mars One, the space exploration program intended to send humans on a one-way trip to Mars that has earned a fair share of dubious looks and sideways glances from the technology and science community, has been pushed back two years as of Tuesday. The company announced the new timeline as well as commissions for both Lockheed Martin and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. to develop “mission concept studies” for the expedition.

Lockheed Martin is at work on Mars One’s lander, which will be designed after NASA’s Phoenix mission lander, another Lockheed Martin project. The Phoenix spacecraft touched down in May 2008, completed all planned experiments by November 2008, and then lost contact with Earth.

Mars One’s lander will be able to scoop soil, just like the Phoenix craft. In addition, Mars One notes that “a water experiment will extract water from the Martian soil.” The press release does not elaborate further how this will be accomplished, though evidence suggests water was once on Mars. The team could be referring to the extraction process done by NASA's Curiosity rover.