Privately-funded Mars mission won't get off the ground, Adelaide-born astronaut Andy Thomas says

ADELAIDE-born astronaut Andy Thomas says a privately-funded project to make a one-way mission to Mars is a stunt, which will struggle to get off the ground.

ADELAIDE-born astronaut Andy Thomas believes a privately-funded attempt to start a colony on Mars will struggle to get off the ground.

Dr Thomas told The Advertiser yesterday while he applauded the ambition of Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp's plan to travel on a one-way mission to the Red Planet in 2024, it would be difficult to make it work.

"I don't think anything will come of it," Dr Thomas said.

"It's raising interest in Mars, which is a good thing, and the ambition is there, but I'm sorry to see a lot of people committing resources to try and be a part of it.

"There's just no legitimacy to the engineering. It's falsely raising the hopes of these young people wanting to be a part of it."

On Monday, The Advertiser revealed 20-year-old UniSA student Tristan Perkins

is in the final group of 1058 people hoping to take part in the privately-funded Mars One project.

It hopes to establish the first human colony outside of Earth with a one-way journey.

Houston-based Dr Thomas is leading a NASA team which is looking at how to send humans to Mars.

"While it does pose engineering problems, it's not insurmountable," he said.

"It's quite feasible and something that could happen in the late 2020s and early 2030s."

Dr Thomas also questioned the Mars One project's one-way logic.

"Coming back is not the challenge, it's getting there. We want to bring people back," he said.

NASA yesterday announced the International Space Station will operate for an additional four years, until 2024.

The $100 billion station started orbiting space 15 years ago and was expected to remain open until 2020.

"We do welcome this news, but for those of us in the business it's not entirely a surprise, there's been a lot of work going on in the background for quite some time," Dr Thomas said.

He flew four space shuttle missions between 1996 and 2005, including one on-board the Russian Mir space station which lasted 140 days in 1998.

Last nighthe spoke at UniSA's International Astronaut event at the City West Campus, where he was joined by Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli from the European Space Agency.