Mars One, the Dutch company that held an open call for volunteer astronauts to settle on Mars, has gone into liquidation.
Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp, CEO and co-founder of Mars One, set out to colonise the red planet by 2023 with a proposal that included a series of modular inflatable life support units.
The company, a combination of Dutch non-profit Mars One and the for-profit Mars One Ventures, was declared bankrupt on 15 January 2019.
Mars One planned to colonised Mars by 2023
In 2013 over 200,000 people reportedly answered his call for applications to be the first four humans to take a one-way ticket to Mars.
Mars One planned to use third-party aerospace hardware and technology adapted from existing systems in its mission to colonise the planet. The space exploration company filed for bankruptcy in January
Lansdorp reportedly planned to use the Falcon Heavy and Dragon rockets developed by SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, to launch robots and later human settlers into space. Mars One planned to have a colony of 20 people living on Mars by 2030.
Crowdfunding Mars mission model failed
In 2016 Ars Technica reported that Mars One had only raised $1 million (£777,000) of its $6 billion (£4.7 billion) budget via astronaut applications, future broadcasting rights and the sale of merchandise, such as commemorative mugs and red cotton tote bags that read: "We're going to Mars. Come along."

Swiss company InFin Innovative Finance AG acquired Mars One in a reverse m...