Mars One space colony project goes public to raise funding
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.0210184
Ars Technica : Although a private venture to establish a permanent human settlement on Mars already has a cadre of astronauts, the Netherlands-based Mars One lacks the necessary funding to accomplish its dream. To try to raise the roughly $6 billion needed to create a Mars colony, Mars One has now merged with Switzerland-based InFin Innovative Finance AG. The merger will allow the new entity, Mars One Ventures AG, to be listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, where investors can buy shares. Once the funding hurdle has been cleared, however, a number of other challenges loom, such as developing the technology to send crews to Mars and establish a sustainable habitat. Moreover, ethical and legal issues could come into play because of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which requires nongovernmental entities to be authorized and supervised by at least one of the state parties to the treaty.
