Woah! How’d I miss this?
Coming soon to a window (not) near you…
Space Tourist to Announce Daring Manned Mars Voyage for 2018
The world’s first space tourist, Dennis Tito is planning to launch a manned mission to Mars in January 2018 on a round-trip journey lasting 501 days.
Tito, who paid about $20 million to visit the International Space Station in 2001, has founded a new nonprofit company called the Inspiration Mars Foundation. The manned mission is intended to “generate new knowledge, experience and momentum for the next great era of space exploration,” according to a press briefing posted by NASA Watch, a website dedicated to space news, on Feb. 20.
Very thorough DailyKos diary with pics of the Dragon Space X interior.
2018!?! Please make this happen!
Sorry to stomp on your post Sky, but couldn’t resist this one.
Comment on February 21, 2013 @ 5:18 pm
A mere pittance for the pleasure.
Lottery!
Comment on February 21, 2013 @ 9:04 pm
Not to worry Max – Mars is still headline-worthy!
I heard of this yester-AM. 2018 is just 5 years off though. My fear is that a too-early failed mission could ‘poison the well’ and actually delay an eventual landing.
Comment on February 22, 2013 @ 3:26 am
Hey man, quit harshin’ the man’s Mars Buzz.
I need a miracle, man. A Marz Miracle.
Comment on February 22, 2013 @ 8:22 am
My buzz is going strong. I just see this as a tremendous spark for humans in space. Lots of ships went down early on but the Americas still got settled. Imagine how thrilling it would be for schoolkids to follow a mission like this. I also see it as driving the impulse for the next phase. If they make it back, those astronauts will be traveling around telling people what it was like to look out the window at a view like the top of this post. Nothing will stop the impulse to send a landing party.
OTOH- they may get stranded and die a horrible death. I suspect that will only make the urge to succeed the next time stronger. Much will be learned about how to do it right. Remember Apollo 1?
Comment on February 22, 2013 @ 11:13 am
The atmosphere in the pic at the top of the post looks way too thick to me. Don’t mean to be a wet blanket, but a crew of only two seems a bit thin too, although I understand the reasoning. But I’d be cheering ANY effort to get humans to Mars!
Comment on February 22, 2013 @ 11:56 am
“The atmosphere in the pic at the top of the post looks way too thick to me.”
It does, doesn’t it?
“…only two seems a bit thin…”
I agree, but I imagine each extra body adds a crapload to the cost. They sure better be two extremely well-adjusted people. Perhaps a very well-matched married couple. I don’t know if I’d want to take odds on the marriage surviving the trip though.
Comment on February 22, 2013 @ 12:04 pm
I guess it’s real. I heard about the press conference on the way home. Tito is covering the first two years of the project out of his own pocket.
It also turns out I was exactly right. They’re intending to send a man and a woman known to have a solid working relationship. One woman on the announcement mentioned how she had met her husband on biosphere or something similar. I got the feeling maybe she was angling to be selected.
This is from memory, so I’ll proceed to try and find a link to something a little more detailed.
Comment on February 27, 2013 @ 8:19 pm
Here ya go:
Comment on February 27, 2013 @ 8:22 pm
We need more science-fictiony stuff like this. Really, it’s so — Van Vogt, or Heinlein. ‘Tunnel In The Sky’ — you know.
More dinosaurs, please. And no Borg, thank you very much.
Comment on February 27, 2013 @ 8:47 pm