--- title: Mars One Has Delayed Its Mars Mission Again description: Mars One announced on Wednesday its project to start a human colony on the Red Planet will be delayed by five years canonical: https://time.com/4595859/mars-one-mission-delay/ author: Abigail Abrams article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-08T21:32:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:50:48.342Z article:section: Science og:title: Mars One Delayed Its Mars Mission Once Again og:description: The company said it needs more money to send people to Mars og:url: https://time.com/4595859/mars-one-mission-delay/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5304cbfe1fca7e72/6988b25fe20a877b88a937ee/mars-one-colonize-red-planet-space-company-astronauts-delay.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: US-SPACE-MARS ONE og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mars One Delayed Its Mars Mission Once Again twitter:description: The company said it needs more money to send people to Mars twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5304cbfe1fca7e72/6988b25fe20a877b88a937ee/mars-one-colonize-red-planet-space-company-astronauts-delay.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Mars One Delayed Its Mars Mission Once Again by [Abigail Abrams](https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/) ## Abigail Abrams Dec 8, 2016 9:32 PM UTC  Mars One CEO Bas Lansdorp holds a press conference to announce the launch of astronaut selection for a Mars space mission project, in New York, April 22, 2013. Mars One CEO Bas Lansdorp holds a press conference to announce the launch of astronaut selection for a Mars space mission project, in New York, April 22, 2013.Emmanuel Dunand—AFP/Getty Images by [Abigail Abrams](https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/) ## Abigail Abrams Dec 8, 2016 9:32 PM UTC If you’re dreaming of the day you’ll get to live on Mars, you may have a bit longer to wait. Mars One [announced](http://www.mars-one.com/news/press-releases/mars-one-presents-an-updated-mission-roadmap) on Wednesday its project to start a human colony on the Red Planet will be delayed by five years. The Dutch company now says it will send its first crews to Mars in 2031 instead of its previous target date of 2026. The venture is delaying its missions so it can raise more money, according to CEO Bas Lansdorp. “Of course the whole Mars One team would have preferred to be able to stick to the original schedule, but this new timeline significantly improves our odds of successfully achieving this mission roadmap,” he said in a statement. This is far from the first time Mars One has [delayed its project](http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/7/13869856/mars-one-revised-mission-timeline-again-launch-plan-2031). Despite Lansdorp’s confidence, other scientists have expressed [significant doubts](http://time.com/3502724/mars-one-colony-mit-bas-landsdorp/?iid=sr-link2) about the mission’s feasibility. In 2014, MIT grad students [released a report](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094576515004294) that said the missions would require great financial resources and technological advances, and that the humans on Mars would likely begin dying within 68 days of arrival. There have also been questions about how Mars One selected its [astronauts](http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/05/09/78000-people-apply-for-one-way-trip-to-mars/?iid=sr-link3) and how much a mission to Mars will [actually cost](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/04/140422-mars-mission-manned-cost-science-space/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4595859/mars-one-mission-delay/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4595859/mars-one-mission-delay/"},"headline":"Mars One Delayed Its Mars Mission Once Again","datePublished":"2016-12-08T21:32:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:50:48.342Z","description":"The company said it needs more money","url":"https://time.com/4595859/mars-one-mission-delay/","keywords":["Mars","Tech","Space","Outer Space"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5304cbfe1fca7e72/6988b25fe20a877b88a937ee/mars-one-colonize-red-planet-space-company-astronauts-delay.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Abigail Abrams","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5304cbfe1fca7e72/6988b25fe20a877b88a937ee/mars-one-colonize-red-planet-space-company-astronauts-delay.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-SPACE-MARS ONE","caption":"US-SPACE-MARS ONE","creditText":"Emmanuel Dunand—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/mars/","name":"Mars"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4595859/mars-one-mission-delay/","name":"Mars One Delayed Its Mars Mission Once Again"}}]}] ```