Space Tourist Unveiling Private Mission To Mars Today.

From Space dot Com

A millionaire space tourist plans to make a major announcement today (Feb. 27) about launching a trip to Mars in 2018. American businessman Dennis Tito paid about $20 million to visit the International Space Station in 2001 aboard a Russian spacecraft. Now, Tito is launching a new nonprofit organization called the Inspiration Mars Foundation to plan another private trip to space.

Mods, I did a search and didn't find anything (but I'd almost swear I saw a thread the other day...hmmmm)

So later today we'll be learning the details of Tito's plans to do a private mission to Mars that is suppose to take advantage of a window of opportunity that would allow a "there and back" mission of only 501 days.

The press conference will be held at 1pm EST. You can watch the announcement live at their web site:

Inspiration Mars

So what do you all speculate? Manned mission? Robotic Mission?

And how do you all feel about it?

I've always felt personally that the only way we would get to Mars would be through international cooperation, or a very, very ambitious private companies.

If it's a manned mission, it would be very exciting for me personally to see that.

Then again, this may just be hype to drum up funds....I guess we'll see at the announcement.

I like you, would love to see it. it What I wouldn't give to be in his shoes that day. I dream of a world where our flying cars can take us to space. Never hurts to dream! Hmm, wonder if there really is all the stuff people find in pictures. Would we really find out, if he took pictures of Mars and those things are there? Lucky, lucky man if he goes.

Well now that the space industry has largely been opened to private investors I'd say the chances of us getting there soon are a lot higher.

Especially if they were to find something valuable there.

I will try to find the story but I believe there are a number of scenarios already worked out for how to get there and its relatively inexpensive compared to most things we conduct up in space.

It involved sending all the supplies to mars first so that the manned craft is easier and less expensive to launch from earth, once there the people can simply resupply, refuel, do their exploring and head back.

Whatever the means though I think it will start pretty quick. Once the intitial bunch of companies break that barrier I assume we are going to see a rush out into space as it will be the new frontier to conquer.

And if there is a profit somewhere to be made I'm sure you will see corporations funding all sorts of adventures, not just private individuals. It will probably start with tourism, than mining then knows what else.

I think the next 100 years are going to be all about space.

Originally posted by eriktheawful

...Then again, this may just be hype to drum up funds...

I think this is all this is. I'm thinking they will tell us about their "dream" to go to Mars, but will not have the specific hardware built (or even funded) for a mission.

Maybe they have some specific mission planned and funded, but if they do (and that's a big "if", in my opinion) it is extremely modest and unmanned. The fact that they are using the National Press Club as their stage for this announcement makes me wonder why they didn't just make the announcement from their own headquarters. Were they afraid nobody from the press would show up if they did that?

If they are planning a BIG mission to Mars in five years, then they would have hardware and infrastructure to show us, and they would do that from their own facilities, not from a club for journalists.

Originally posted by kaidec
I like you, would love to see it. it What I wouldn't give to be in his shoes that day. I dream of a world where our flying cars can take us to space. Never hurts to dream! Hmm, wonder if there really is all the stuff people find in pictures. Would we really find out, if he took pictures of Mars and those things are there? Lucky, lucky man if he goes.

You know, considering the massive amount of threads started up here on ATS since Curiosity landed on Mars (and in the years before with others) about "Mars Anomalies", highlighting different Rocks, claiming them to be something other than Rocks, I was musing about this:

A manned mission to Mars happens....and for whatever reason.....ATS members have a direct line to the personnel on the surface of Mars.

They'd be spending all their time running to and fro going: it's a rock!

Originally posted by Hopechest
Especially if they were to find something valuable there.

Let's say they found huge gold deposits on Mars, and didn't even have to mine it, but only had to pick up rocks made of solid gold. How much would it cost to bring the gold back to Earth, versus the current market price of gold?

Even moon rocks cost a fortune to bring back and Mars is a lot further.

www.collectspace.com...

it cost $50,800 per gram to collect the lunar samples (in 1962-1973 dollars)

That's $288,845 per gram in 2013 dollars, compared to the gold market price of about $56 per gram recently. I'm sure the cost can be lowered from that somewhat, however, there's a long way to go before it would become economical, and since Mars is so much further than the moon, it's that much harder to make it economical.

Back to the OP, the wrong link was posted in OP, here is the right one:
www.space.com...

This is an interesting announcement, and very ambitious to say the least. But I think he would need to be a billionaire instead of a millionaire to fund it, so he will have to raise a lot of funds.

reply to post by Arbitrageur


OOps!

Thanks! Link is fixed (it's actually a different one from yours).

So the answer is: Yes, a manned mission:

Private Mission To Mars

WASHINGTON — A new nonprofit led by the world's first space tourist is mounting an ambitious plan to launch the first manned mission to Mars in 2018, a voyage that could include an adventurous married crew.

Tito announced that the idea is to send one man and one woman on a flyby mission to Mars, using the sling shot effect to send them back.

Part of me wonders if it would be worth the effort....but then another part of me says that even if it's a flyby only, it would still be historic, and soon (IE mission starting in 2018 vs having to wait until 2031).

I don't understand, ofcourse mars is a nice planet, but we should first practice on the moon more.. it's a lot closer, and I think it would be a d*amn fine archievement already. Plus the moon will probably be an important mining place in the far future.

And before thinking about colonizing other planets, we better clean up this one because we aint gonna find such a beauty anywhere close to us. And after all, it's our home.

I don't really see the appeal of doing just a flyby. If I'd go, I'd go with Mars One's one-way trip in 2023.

That seems to be shaping up quite nicely by the way. Thousands of people are already applying even though their Astronaut Application Program hasn't started yet.

This just might become a historic decade. Such an honor to be alive now and witness it.

Originally posted by Symer
I don't really see the appeal of doing just a flyby. If I'd go, I'd go with Mars One's one-way trip in 2023.

That seems to be shaping up quite nicely by the way. Thousands of people are already applying even though their Astronaut Application Program hasn't started yet.

This just might become a historic decade. Such an honor to be alive now and witness it.

It would be very anti-climatic in my opinion. Who wants to just do a fly-by? But privatizing the Mars trips would probably get more info than we're getting now.