Going to Mars: Billionaire Dennis Tito plans manned mission with possible 2017 launch

[jakeXT]

Source: Washington Post

Billionaire Dennis Tito, tired of being told that we can’t send humans to Mars just yet, on Wednesday revealed his scheme for launching two astronauts to the red planet as early as December 2017.

Dubbed “Inspiration Mars,” the fly-by mission would exploit a rare alignment of Earth and Mars that minimizes the time and the fuel it would take to get to Mars and back home again. The astronauts would come within 100 miles of the Martian surface before being slung back to Earth.

“It would be a voyage of around 800 million miles around the sun in 501 days,” Tito testified Wednesday at a hearing of the House subcommittee on space. “No longer is a Mars fly-by mission just one more theoretical idea. It can be done. Not in a matter of decades, but in a few years.”

Grab this opportunity or risk seeing China get to Mars first, the space buff told the members of Congress.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/going-to-mars-billionaire-dennis-tito-plans-manned-mission-with-possible-2017-launch/2013/11/20/b859bc76-51e8-11e3-9fe0-fd2ca728e67c_story.html

[mahannah]

1. Why?

[MindMover]

4. Maybe to take pictures of the "Woman on Mars" .... aka the "Man on the Moon"

[csziggy]

16. To quote George Mallory "Because it's there."

Humans will go for the same reason Hillary climbed Everest:

Nobody climbs mountains for scientific reasons. Science is used to raise money for the expeditions, but you really climb for the hell of it.
Edmund Hillary

[Electric Monk]

40. Also like Mallory's 1924 expedition, it's probably a one way trip, despite the best of intentions.nt

[csziggy]

41. That won't stop adventurers -it's what some humans love to do

Go "where no man has gone before" etc.

At least with an expedition to Mars, there is a chance of learning new things, even if most of what we might learn is more about humans.

[Electric Monk]

43. I'm with ya. Have you ever read the HeeChee Saga by Frederik Pohl?

Gateway

Beyond the Blue Event Horizon

Learning new things, etc. yes.








does this make me some kind of freak to be the only DUer who appreciates Fred Pohl?

[csziggy]

45. It's been years since I read Pohl

But I read a lot of science fiction - the old stuff when the wonder of discovery and exploration was a major part of the genre. I don't read much of the newer SF - I had enough of dystopian futures with the post-bomb apocalyptic SF of the 60s.

I'd rather hope for a Star Trek future than one where mankind eliminates itself on this planet.

[novano]

2. i want to Go to Mars :D

[arcane1]

3. I wonder what two people could accomplish that unmanned vehicles couln't.

Plus "Another alignment of planets in 2021 would make a somewhat longer mission possible — add another 80 days — and require that the astronauts fly closer to the sun than the planet Venus as part of the mission. " One would have to pray there are no solar storms during that time

[jakeXT]

5. Or invent a shield

Ion Shield for Interplanetary Spaceships Now a Reality

http://www.universetoday.com/20671/ion-shield-for-interplanetary-spaceships-now-a-reality/

[Kelvin Mace]

14. I will believe it works when it has been tested in space

Labs and space are WAY different places.

Also note that the source is the "Daily Telegraph" which is one step above the "Weekly World News" in fact-checking. Even if it does work, it will need a power source, and the only one that could provide that kind of output for months and provide sufficient power for an engine is a nuclear reactor, which is a tough sell in these post-Fukushima days.

[randome]

6. The only thing that's been reported from Mars for the past 30 years is...

...finding evidence that life may have existed. It's beyond boring and sure as hell not inspirational.

Maybe people could do a better job of it.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]TECT in the name of the Representative approves of this post.[/center][/font][hr]

[muriel_volestrangler]

28. Not from a fly-by - they won't even be in orbit for extended observation

There really is no scientific point in sending 2 camera operators that far, when their (and their life support systems') mass means lower quality cameras that have to take photos while travelling past far faster, and one time only.

[randome]

31. True but a flyby now -or in 2017- means a better chance of landing later.

The process needs to get started somehow. It's a long-term game.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]There is nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.
Nothing.[/center][/font][hr]

[OnlinePoker]

11. Female and Male - Space Baby n/t

[randome]

32. Think of the marketing rights!

The ultimate Reality show!
[hr][font color="blue"][center]There is nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.
Nothing.[/center][/font][hr]

[TBF]

7. Can we send them all?

I really want David and Charles Koch to be on that flight off this planet as well.

[Posteritatis]

8. More power to him, if just to spite all the reflexive misanthropes re: space. (nt)

[vdogg]

9. Wow

Am I the only one that thinks this is a good idea? It's sad to see the state that space exploration is in today, and judging by comments in this thread, even sadder to see that the American people have so little interest in it anymore. This mission would be a powerful proof of concept. It would send humans into space longer than they've ever been and farther than they've ever been. That in itself should get imaginations flowing again. I for one hope he succeeds.

[Posteritatis]

12. The striking thing is that it wouldn't break the duration record by that much

Valeri Polyakov spent just shy of 438 days up there in one go, for instance.

[hatrack]

10. 1,600 times longer than the flight to the moon, and they'll launch in four years?

Really? In a modified satellite? Manned by who, following training where?

Unless there's one helluva lot more going on at the ISS than meets the eye, highly skeptical about the odds of this being anything more than vaporware/PR.

[Posteritatis]

19. Time's the big deal in spaceflight, not distance.

Once you break Earth's orbit you're halfway to Mars. Or Neptune, for that matter. The first few thousand kilometers is the hard part.

[Fumesucker]

24. Actually in terms of total delta vee once you are in Earth orbit you're halfway to anywhere

Or so I am told.

[skepticscott]

21. Agreed…they aren't even close to solving

all of the technical problems involved in a gravity-free mission of that length. This sounds like just puffery. If they launch in four years, they'll end up with two dead astronauts in all likelihood.

[Posteritatis]

22. It's only 62 days longer than the current zero-gravity flight record. (nt)

[skepticscott]

35. The problem is not just time duration

It is distance, away from Earth, away from any kind of assistance or resupply.

[bananas]

44. They can do it, Tito is a rocket scientist and an expert in risk analysis.

They're already evaluating volunteers, and say they have a lot of good candidates. They're going to send a married couple, middle-aged to reduce lifetime risk of cancer from radiation, with sufficient mechanical skills to maintain the environmental control system, etc.

Tito says the risk of loss of crew will be less than 1%, which is better than the Space Shuttle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Tito

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Astronautics and Aeronautics from New York University, 1962 and a Master of Science in Engineering Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute satellite campus in Hartford, Connecticut.[1] He is a member of Psi Upsilon and received an honorary doctorate of engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on 18 May 2002 and is a former scientist of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

In 1972, he founded Wilshire Associates, a leading provider of investment management, consulting and technology services in Santa Monica, California. Dennis Tito serves an international clientele representing assets of $71 billion.[2] Wilshire relies on the field of quantitative analytics, which uses mathematical tools to analyze market risks - a methodology Tito is credited with helping to develop by applying the same techniques he used to determine a spacecraft's path at JPL.[3] Despite a career change from aerospace engineering to investment management, Tito remained interested in space.

Tito was appointed to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Board of Commissioners in the 1990s and led the board to support the landmark 1994 state ruling protecting Mono Lake from excessive water diversions by the city.[4]

http://www.sciencefriday.com/segment/03/04/2011/early-space-shuttle-flights-riskier-than-estimated.html

MAR. 04, 2011
Early Space Shuttle Flights Riskier Than Estimated

A retrospective risk analysis by the Space Shuttle Safety and Mission Assurance Office found that the first nine shuttle flights had a one-in-nine chance of catastrophic failure -- ten times the risk of flights today. Teri Hamlin and Mike Canga of NASA's Johnson Space Center discuss the report.

Space Shuttle Program Top Risk Review, Jan 20, 2011. by the Space Shuttle Safety and Mission Assurance Office, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas

Produced by Christopher Intagliata, Senior Producer

GUESTS

Teri Hamlin
Technical Lead, Space Shuttle Probabilistic Risk Assessment
NASA's Johnson Space Center
Houston, Texas

Mike Canga
Space Shuttle Program Risk Manager
NASA's Johnson Space Center
Houston, Texas

[Kelvin Mace]

13. Nice dream, but it is not going to happen

Not until someone comes up with a faster engine and a way to protect the astronauts from long exposure to hard cosmic radiation.

[KansDem]

15. What's he going to do there? Buy it?

Hell, the billionaires should have Earth bought and paid for by then. Might be time to set up franchises.

If you thought mining in Appalachia was bad, just wait!

[csziggy]

17. Let him spend money on the mission - a new redistribution of wealth

That will benefit engineers and advance technology. It will be good for the country - if the money is kept in this country as much as possible.

[olddad56]

18. the Koch Brothers would make the perfect astronuts for this mission.

Just a thought.

[One_Life_To_Give]

20. When Apollo flew

we expected a colony to be established on Mars before this.

[randome]

34. 2001: A Space Odyssey was made in 1968.

We actually thought we would have Moon bases by 2001. Where did we make a wrong turn?
[hr][font color="blue"][center]There is nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.
Nothing.[/center][/font][hr]

[JackRiddler]

38. "We" made a wrong turn?

Does it occur to you that the only "wrong turn" would have been that by Kubrick and Clark, by overestimating what would be possible by the year "2001" in their fictional work?

Or that it's not even wrong of them, since it's... fiction? And rather clearly full of allegory? You know, a myth (in the transcendent sense)? What about the part with the apes, do you think that was historical footage, perhaps?

Would the movie have signified all that differently if it were called "2101," or "1899"? (It would still rock the universe, of course.)

And I'm big on the space future. Just without illusions that any of us are going to live to see the eventual colonization of other planets, or that it requires an immediate rush-rush.

Maybe to placate some transhumanists?

[randome]

46. I grew up in the 60s. We believed then that we would have extra-world colonies in a few decades.

We believed that anything was possible. But we somehow failed to keep the momentum of the space program going.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]TECT in the name of the Representative approves of this post.[/center][/font][hr]

[ncar243]

23. The new frontier

Sounds like a huge waste of resources. But then again so were the wagon trains on the Oregon trail. Have to start somewhere. Best of luck to the mission.

[gopiscrap]

26. what?

[jakeXT]

27. Welcome to DU /nt

[In_The_Wind]

47. Hello ~ ncar243

[img][/img]

[bucolic_frolic]

25. I think he watched too many "My Favorite Martian"s

or Mars Bars

Wealth brings its own lunacy to complex problems

[PSPS]

33. You're right

This is just another bored billionaire member of the parasitic nouveau riche who probably never pays any taxes.

[hughee99]

29. Isn't that kind of like packing up the kids to drive past Disney World, without stopping? n/t

[C_eh_N_eh_D_eh]

30. I'll just throw money at the laws of physics until they go away!

That's how I get around all the other laws. What's God's Swiss bank number?

[vdogg]

42. What law of physics

Is violated by this mission? The technology exist today. The far greater problem is psychological fitness. Finding 2 humans that can stand eachother cramped up in such a small space for that long will be a challenge.

[Marrah_G]

36. I volunteer to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[hunter]

37. Now he didn't say they had to be LIVE astronauts, did he?

Two previously cremated astronauts in a tin can shouldn't be too difficult.

Lego People astronauts might work too.

Heck, there are Lego People Mars Geologists who would be happy to live on Mars permanently...



http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/Astronaut_%28Mars_Mission%29

[DavidDvorkin]

39. I'm sure they'll be live when they leave.

[penultimate]

48. I'd rather China get there first.