Image Credit : Mars One
Mars One is addressing the criticism coming its way from a number of sources. In the below Youtube interview, the organization’s founder Bas Landorf challenges a recent piece by Australian reporter Elmo Keep, while conceding that the time frames for both a Mars orbiter/lander as a well as possible first mission have slipped. He also states terms for a new round of investment may be complete by this summer, paving the way for 2020 first launch.
Note: If slipping time frames alone were a valid condemnation of any space venture, we might have never made it out of the Apollo era. NewSpace superstar SpaceX has almost never achieved a stated develop goal and yet the company is single handedly turning the launch industry on its head.
Mars One is a very different sort of enterprise, and from the moment it was announced, the only two guaranteed results were a great deal of controversy regarding the one-way mission concept, and of course, slipping time frames. The latter problem is also a benefit however. As long as it is making some degree of tangible progress, Mars One can continue to slip its schedule to the right in two year increments. The 2018 dual launch would have been more than enough. The question now becomes, with the loss of its planned television deal which was announced last month, can the organization reboot and out together any sort of hardware package for the 2020 launch window, no matter how modest?