It is a news from Wednesday, but maybe someone want to know.
Multimillionaire Dennis Tito has created a nonprofit group called Inspiration Mars and green-lit a program to send a single couple on a 501-day trip around the red planet and return to earth, beginning in January 5th, 2018. The mission is described as "high-risk", which is to be expected when you lock a married couple in a cramped capsule for a year and a half. Under the audacious but bare-bones plan, the spacecraft would blast off less than five years from now and pass within 100 miles of the Martian surface. The cost was not disclosed, but outsiders put it at more than $1 billion.
"A celestial harmony makes such a plan feasible -- a once-every-15-years alignment of Earth and Mars wherein a modest craft can shoot there and back with minimal fuel.
The risks of this mission soar beyond those NASA would allow, said Tito adviser Jonathan Clark, a former NASA space doctor now at the Baylor College of Medicine.
Beyond low Earth orbit, cosmic radiation rises dramatically, upping the risk of cancer. If illness or injury occur, there is no hospital for millions of miles, no chance to abort, and no escape.
The nearly 18-month trip will cover 818 million miles.
Time spent within 60,000 miles of Mars: 10 hours."+ More >> |
