This week the Inspiration Mars Foundation, a newly formed non-profit organisation, announced plans for a mission to Mars launching on 5 January 2018 and arriving at the planet in August of that year. Dennis Tito, who in 2001 became the first space tourist to visit the International Space Station, heads the foundation. The trip will be funded primarily by philanthropic donations – but Tito has committed to personally covering the first two years of mission development, no matter how much it costs.
"This is not a commercial mission," Tito said at a press conference on 27 February in Washington, DC. "Let me guarantee you, I will come out to be a lot poorer as a result of this mission. But my grandchildren will come out to be a lot wealthier through the inspiration that this will give them."
An orbital fly of Mars by without a landing doesn't make sense to me. It would be enormously risky from a physiological standpoint. If I volunteered for such a mission, I would not want to risk the long term effects of cosmic ray exposure without at least attempting a landing. It smacks of grandstanding, IMO. To read more, click here.