Sponsors

Sponsors can be selected at the beginning of a colonization attempt. They are your sponsor partner in establishing your colonies in Mars. Different agencies offer different amounts of funding and together with your starting location on Mars determine the initial difficulty of the game. They will also affect the price that rare metals you can mine on Mars fetch when exported back to Earth. Who your sponsor is will also determine the goal you need to reach by Sol 100. As of new releases for the game, sponsors have new and varied abilities and structures to choose from which are able to provide enhanced abilities for your colony. For example, waste rock filtering/refining, new solar megastructures, enhanced sterling generators, research for each scanned sector, and new rover abilities, which effectively prevents the player from playing a game session and failing the mission. All Sponsors default to the Rocket Scientist Commander, but another Commander can be chosen instead.

Note that Rockets used by most Sponsors default to 50,000 kg of Cargo or 12 Colonists, but there are two exceptions:
 * The International Mars Mission and USA have Cargo Rockets that can carry 70,000 kg of Cargo
 * China has Rockets that carry 22 Colonists

Sponsor Overview

 * Here's a table for a quick comparison with additional details for each Sponsor below the table.

International Mars Mission

 * Base Difficulty 20%
 * Rockets can carry 70,000 kg of Cargo (+20,000 kg more)
 * Colonists will never become Earthsick
 * Food carried by Passenger Rockets is multiplied x10
 * Rockets will slowly synthesize Fuel while on Mars

USA

 * Base Difficulty 60%
 * Rockets can carry 70,000 kg of Cargo (+20,000 kg more)
 * Periodic additional funding

Blue Sun Corporation

 * Base Difficulty 70%
 * Can buy Applicants with Funding
 * Additional Rockets are significantly cheaper
 * Probes can discover deep Rare Metal deposits
 * Bonus Tech: Deep Metal Extraction (can extract deep metals and deep rare metals deposits)

China

 * Base Difficulty 80%
 * Passenger rockets carry an additional 10 Colonists (22 instead of 12)
 * Applicants are generated twice as fast

India

 * Base Difficulty 110%
 * All building costs reduced by 20%
 * Bonus Tech: Low-G Engineering (unlocks Medium Dome)

Europe

 * Base Difficulty 130%
 * 5 extra starting technologies
 * Gains Funding every time a tech is researched. Gains double if it's a Breakthrough tech.

SpaceY

 * Base Difficulty 150%
 * Drone hubs start with additional drones
 * Advanced Resources are 50% cheaper

Church of the New Ark

 * Base Difficulty 190%
 * All Colonists have the Religious trait
 * Birthrate is doubled
 * Hydroponic Farms produce 50% less (drawback)

Russia

 * Base Difficulty 200%
 * Bonus Tech Fueled Extractors (Extractor Upgrade: Use Fuel to increase extractor production)
 * Fueled Extractors upgrade is free
 * Fuel Refinery Prefab costs 50% less
 * Rockets have extended travel time (drawback)

Paradox Interactive

 * Base Difficulty 200%
 * Discover more Breakthrough Anomalies
 * Researching a Breakthrough grants Applicants
 * Rockets require more fuel to launch (drawback)

Brazil

 * Base Difficulty 100%
 * Colonists grant funding when they arrive on Mars
 * Passages cost no resources and are constructed instantly
 * Colonists suffer no penalties when using passages to work or visit connected domes
 * 5 free Large Supply Pods

Japan

 * Base Difficulty 170%
 * Cost and weight of Rovers lowered by 50%
 * Exploring a sector grants 500 research points
 * Wasp Drones (faster drones that hover)
 * All specialists perform better (+10 performance)
 * Applicant generation reduced (drawback)

Terraforming Initiative

 * Base Difficulty 100%
 * All Terraforming techs are 50% cheaper for research
 * Forestation Plants do not require Power
 * Can import RC Dozers from the start
 * Bonus Tech: Interplanetary Projects
 * Bonus Tech: Martian Vegetation