Space tourist and former NASA engineer Dennis Tito is bankrolling a proposed 501-day human flyby of Mars that would have to launch in January 2018.
Even if the Inspiration Mars Foundation that Tito is personally funding for two years never gets its planned human Mars-flyby mission off the ground, the world’s first space tourist believes it will have given the U.S. space endeavor a much-needed boost in terms of technical data for future attempts and possible medical breakthroughs that will be needed for deep-space travel.
Tito wants two professional crewmembers — one man, one woman, flying as private citizens — to fly the “fast, free-return” mission, passing within 100 mi. of the Martian surface.
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