Mars One launches crowd-funding project

Mars One is an international initiative aiming at sending the first humans on the surface of the red planet and eventually building a permanent human settlement. It consists of a series of missions that will start with sending a robotic vehicle in 2018 which will deploy the first modules and demonstrate the application of the necessary technologies before actually sending humans, starting in 2024.

Figures say that more than 200.000 people from all around the world have applied for an opportunity to be among those stepping on the surface of Mars for the first time in human history. Next to this record, Mars One claims to be the first space project that is open for private funding. In fact, a crowd-funding scheme has just been launched at Indiegogo where anyone can be a contributor and write history.

Obviously the amount of funds set by the crowd-funding scheme ($400.000) are not meant to support the total budget of such an extraordinary project, but it gives the opportunity to people to be actively involved in making this happen. After the successful missions of the earlier missions of Opportunity and Curiosity, Mars One can be the next leap in space exploration and boost robotics technology to unprecedented frontiers.