Free Republic

Billionaire Dennis Tito has revealed his scheme for dispatching two astronauts to the red planet as early as December 2017, saying that 'rare alignments' of planets should be exploited as the context of the project. 'Inspiration Mars' would be a 501-day US mission to the planet without landing on its surface and would take the opportunity of a rare alignment of Mars and earth so that the mission would require minimal rocket fuel, according to a report released on Wednesday. Two separate trips would be necessary for the Mars Mission - Tito proposed that the first launch would involve a...

nnis Tito, a billionaire financier who in 2001 became the first space tourist, has launched a project to send two civilians on “an historic journey” to the Red Planet in January 2018. “We have not sent humans beyond the moon in more than 40 years,” Mr Tito said at a press conference in Washington on Wednesday. “I’ve been waiting, and a lot of people my age, have been waiting. And I think it’s time to put an end to that lapse”. The mission, a “return fly-by”, in which the spacecraft would fly around Mars rather than land, would last for...