Friday, February 22, 2013

Is a private Mars mission taking shape for 2018?

Entrepreneur and private space flight pioneer Dennis Tito has a grand vision. The world`s first space tourist and founder of the Inspiration Mars Foundation Dennis Tito wants to team up with Space X to go to Mars, in 5 years no less!.  Dennis Tito has scheduled a press conference for February 27th to detail his "Mars shot" mission. Don`t get your hopes up for a landing though, this would strictly be a fly-by, turn around and go home type of mission.


Discovery reports:


"Because of the short timeframe to develop the necessary technology to make this mission possible, the mission will be strictly no-frills. It will use existing tech for life support and will not make any attempt to land on the Martian surface or orbit the planet. It will simply be a fly-there, fly-by, fly-back mission. Attempting such a feat would be one for the history books, surely catapulting the hopes and dreams on Earth to the Red Planet where far grander missions will be attempted later on."

By Tito’s team’s reckoning, the mission will launch in the January 2018 launch window (when Earth and Mars are in a favorable positions) and last 501 days.

“This ‘Mission for America’ will generate new knowledge, experience and momentum for the next great era of space exploration,” officials from the Inspiration Mars Foundation wrote in a media advisory on Feb. 20 (via NASAWatch.com). “It is intended to encourage all Americans to believe again, in doing the hard things that make our nation great, while inspiring youth through Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education and motivation.”

VERY ambitious, a lot of things have to go right in order for this to become a reality, still unprecedented and could be just the thing to inspire a future land and then......let the diaspora begin!

more here

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