05.01.2017 – 16:38

Mars One Ventures AG

DGAP-News: Mars One Ventures AG: funding enables important steps forward in 2017

DGAP-News: Mars One Ventures AG / Key word(s): Forecast
Mars One Ventures AG: funding enables important steps forward in 2017

05.01.2017 / 16:37
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

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Amersfoort, January 5, 2017 -- Mars One today confirms its short term mission
and business plans for 2017. In December 2016, a EUR6 million investment from
World Stock & Bond Trade Limited was announced of which a first of six equal
batches will be received end of January 2017. This will allow Mars One to take
the next steps to move the mission to Mars forward, to strengthen its capital
and liquidity position, and to boost the exposure and commercial activities.
Mars One expects to achieve this by expanding the teams for the Mars One
entities with experienced team members: the not-for-profit Mars One Foundation
and the publicly trading Mars One Ventures AG [FRA: KCC], ISIN: CH0132106482.

"We'll add several team members with experience in implementing Mars missions"
said Arno Wielders, Mars One's CTO and Co-founder. "These new team members will
help us further shape and manage the technical road map for our mission to Mars.
In space development terms, our mission design is currently in Phase A.
Completing all conceptual design studies will result in a firm baseline design
and improved cost figures. Phase B will be the detailed design of all elements
needed to safely land humans on Mars and keep them alive. Completing that
development phase will allow Mars One to move the mission forward to Phases C
and D: all hardware is built, manufactured, integrated and tested, and finally
launched to Mars. That should lead to full system readiness on the surface of
Mars, giving the green light for the first crew of four astronauts to start
their journey to Mars," explains Wielders.
The first three conceptual design studies in Mars One's current mission
development phase have been completed by Paragon Space Development Corporation
and Lockheed Martin. Suppliers with relevant experience will be contracted to
perform conceptual design studies for all other major (sub)-systems required for
the permanent settlement mission. These studies demand 500 to 2500 man-hours
each leading to a comprehensive technical concept design of the various
components of the mission to Mars.

In addition to expanding team on the engineering side of the mission, the Mars
One Foundation will hire team members with experience in crew selection and
training. Mars One is currently preparing for the next selection rounds to trim
down the current group of 100 Round Three astronaut candidates. Up to six groups
of four crew members will become full time employees of Mars One to start
training for the mission. The design for the next rounds is ready and the next
steps are determining the dates and locations, expanding the team of selection
and training specialists, and logistics. "New team members will help the Mars
One selection committee with the overall progress of the upcoming selection
rounds and training, including for example the execution and evaluation of the
astronaut selection activities, and guiding the teams," says Norbert Kraft,
M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Mars One. Mars One selection committee members
Norbert Kraft, M.D., Prof. Raye Kass, PhD, and James Kass, PhD possess
understanding of different cultures as well as many years of experience working
with extreme environments, and, of utmost importance, isolated habitats. They
have professional experience in the field of Human Spaceflight (Group Dynamics/
Long duration Space Flight/ Medicine/Psychology/ Psycho-physiology) and
extensive work with astronauts from JAXA, NASA, CSA, ESA, and RFSA.

The commercial arm of Mars One, Mars One Ventures, is building a core team of
experienced media professionals to further develop the Mars One brand and
monetize it. The Mars One Ventures team is establishing strong commercial
partnerships and generate income from a range of existing and new revenue
sources. Together these will provide a strong basis for ongoing value creation.
Short term focus areas include:

Creating engaging (video) content. Most notably new media content about Mars
One's Astronaut Selection Round Three and the steps that follow. This will grow
and engage Mars One's audience; Expanding merchandise sales volumes by
broadening the range of Mars One products. Additionally, higher sales volumes
are expected to be reached by growing the number of website visitors due to
increased interest in Mars One's mission as a result of the Mars One astronaut
selection program and foreseen mission progress;
Seeking new brand partnerships, both short and long term. Mars One's upcoming
steps forward, especially around astronaut selection, provide numerous
opportunities for brand connections.

Bas Lansdorp, CEO and co-founder of Mars One said "Arno and I founded Mars One
almost six years ago. With limited funding and a small team we've worked very
hard to get to the point where we are today. Now with the secured funding, 2017
will be the year where it all starts coming together, and we can finally take
those next steps in our mission both the Mars One team and our supporters are
eagerly looking forward to."

About Mars One
Mars One aims to establish a permanent human settlement on Mars. Before
carefully selected and trained crews will depart to Mars, several unmanned
missions will be completed, establishing a habitable settlement waiting for the
first astronauts to arrive.

Mars One consists of two entities: the not-for-profit Mars One Foundation and
the publicly trading Mars One Ventures AG [FRA: KCC], ISIN: CH0132106482. The
Mars One Foundation implements, and manages the mission and owns the mission
hardware. It also selects and trains the crews, and is building an ever growing
community of experts and supporters that follow the progress of the mission and
contribute to it.

Mars One Ventures holds the exclusive monetization rights around the Mars One
mission. There are many revenue possibilities around the mission to Mars:
merchandise, ads on video content, broadcasting rights, partnerships,
Intellectual Property, events, games, apps, and many more.

For more information about Mars One, please visit www.mars-one.com.

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05.01.2017  Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a service
of EQS Group AG.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

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Language: English

Company:  Mars One Ventures AG

          Birsigstr. 2

          4054 Basel

          Switzerland

Phone:    +41 61 312 34 11

E-mail:    ir@mars-one.com

Internet: http://www.mars-one.com/investor-relations/

ISIN:     CH0132106482

WKN:      A14NYB

Listed:   Regulated Market in Frankfurt (General Standard); Regulated Unofficial
Market in Munich



 

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