Around 200,000 people have applied for a one-way mission to Mars, though it's still pretty unclear if and when the ambitious project to colonize the "red planet" is going to take place. Some believe that it may happen in the 2020s.

Determined to forge ahead with its plans whatever the financial or technical challenges, the company behind the Mars One project first intends to send an unmanned payload in 2018 and obtain streaming video from the surface of Mars, and after that, the first four-man Martian crew will blast into space on a no-return voyage, followed by additional crews every two years.

Mars One's top goal is to build a human settlement as a stepping stone on humanity's way out of its terrestrial cradle into the Solar System.

Mars One candidates must be older than 18, "intelligent, creative, psychologically stable and physically healthy", have personal drive and motivation and be capable of working in a team. As there are no means to take them back to Earth, Mars is going to be their only since the moment they land on it. Their life on the "red planet" is supposed to be broadcast here on Earth as a reality TV series.

Though the manned part looks better on paper, the wheels are already in motion to set the unmanned stage on track. The first contractors for Mars One's unmanned mission have been selected. These are Lockheed Martin and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL). Lockheed Martin will build a robotic lander and SSTL will build a communications satellite.

The lander will have will have a robotic arm, an onboard laboratory and some as-of-yet unknown payload proposed by the winner of a worldwide Mars One university contest to be launched next year. It will also attempt to deploy solar panels and extract water from Martian soil.

The satellite will stay on orbit, providing communications for the lander and feeding back live video from the surface camera and telemetric data.

SSTL Executive Chairman Martin Sweeting was thrilled by his company's role in the mission. "This study gives us an unprecedented opportunity to take our tried and tested approach and apply it to Mars One's imaginative and exhilarating challenge of sending humans to Mars through private investment," he said in an interview.

The commercialization of space exploration is "vital in order to bring down costs and schedules and fuel progress," Sweeting said.

Big work lies ahead from conceptual design to actual construction, for which five years may not be enough, so, perhaps, the launch date for Mars One's unmanned payload will be postponed until after 2018. It is already two years behind its original schedule.

Source: Voice of Russia