Inspiration Mars: A Plan to Go to Mars by 2018

Planets are Aligning for a Once-in-a-Generation Space Journey

by jack kennedy

Multimillionaire entrepreneur Dennis Tito — who, in 2001, became the world’s first space tourist — intends to launch a privately backed mission to Mars in 2018. Details will be announced next week, (Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013), at the National Press Club in Washington.

The press event will also include two members of the Biosphere 2 project, Jane Poynter and Taber MacCallum, who are now with Paragon Space Development Corporation, a company that builds life support and environmental control systems for extreme environments like space.

Jonathan Clark of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute in Houston, Texas, a former NASA crew surgeon and recent advisor on Felix Baumgartner’s supersonic skydive from near the edge of space, will probably speak about the health risks of a long-term space mission, which hints at the possibility of a crewed mission.

In 2001, Tito famously became the first civilian to fund his own trip to the International Space Station, earning him the title of “world’s first space tourist” aboard a Russian Soyuz. Tito’s new project, called Inspiration Mars Foundation, seems to think it can send two people to Mars and back in 501 days, starting in January 2018.

Tito’s team chose January 2018 because it is when a brief orbital alignment window opens up between Mars and Earth (the next time we’ll come that close to Mars will be in 2031). The crew wouldn’t touch down on the surface of the red planet, but if successful, they would dash out beat all nations in a Mars flyby race.

Tito is expected to announce is just how his crew will to get to Mars. Many sources suggest a Space X’s Red Dragon craft, a planned variant of the Dragon capsule that has already serviced the ISS in unmanned commercial cargo missions and the first commercial crewed flight planned for 2015.

Space X founder Elon Musk has repeatedly said he will deliver humans to Mars within a decade, presumably to the surface, not just the “Inspiration Mars” planned 2018 flyby. Nonetheless, a human crewed fly by of Mars and its moons would be a spectacular feat by any modern measure.

This “Mission for America” will generate new knowledge, experience and momentum for the next great era of space exploration. 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.

SpaceX Next – Falcon Heavy

There is a lot of skepticism to be overcome by the initial speculation about the impending announcement in the media. Nonetheless, men like Dennis Tito and Elon Musk have demonstrated a lot of determination over the past decade to advance commercial space activities.

Member of the Board of Directors for the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, member of the Virginia Aerospace Advisory Council and a Space Frontier Foundation Advocate, Jack Kennedy writes the popular blog Spaceports where this article first appeared. Reposted by permission.

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