Thursday, February 28, 2013

The Crazy Plan to Fly Two Humans to Mars in 2018

At the National Press Club in Washington today, businessman and private space traveler Dennis Tito officially announced his plans to fund a private, nonprofit effort to launch the first human mission to the Red Planet, called Inspiration Mars. To take advantage of an alignment of Earth and Mars that happens once every 15 years and would allow the shortest possible travel time possible between the planets, the mission seeks to launch on January 5, 2018. The crew would return to Earth on May 21, 2019.


 



 


Tito’s spacecraft will be as stripped-down as possible. There will be no landing, and no need for a landing craft. Instead, the spacecraft will fly to within 100 miles of Mars to give humans the first close-up view of the planet without actually touching down. The crew would also be kept to a bare minimum for safety: just two astronauts.


As for total cost, Tito, indicated that it would cost “a factor of 100″ less than the Apollo missions. That would put it at about $1 billion. “This is really chump change,” Tito said. 


 


Read more: Popular Mechanics



The Cra y Plan to Fly Two Humans to Mars in 2018

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