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Author Topic:   A Private Trip To Mars In Five Years!
Randall
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From: Saturn next to Charmainec
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posted February 27, 2013 05:35 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Randall     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
WASHINGTON (AP) — In less than five years, a married couple could be on their way toward Mars in an audacious but bare-bones private mission that would slingshot them around the red planet, under a plan announced Wednesday by a financial tycoon and his team.

The voyage to Mars and back would be a cosmic no-frills flight that would take the husband-and-wife astronauts as close as 100 miles to the planet, but it would also mean being cooped up for 16 months in a cramped space capsule half the size of an RV.

The private, nonprofit project, called Inspiration Mars, will get initial money from multimillionaire investment consultant Dennis Tito, the first space tourist. The team would not say how much the overall flight would cost, but outsiders put it at more than $1 billion.

NASA will not be involved. Instead, the project's backers intend to use a private rocket and space capsule and some kind of habitat that might be inflatable, employing an austere design that could take people to Mars for a fraction of what it would cost NASA to do with robots, officials said.

The crew members will have no lander to go down to the planet, and no spacesuits to go out for any spacewalk. They will have minimal food and clothing, and their urine will be recycled into drinking water.

"This is not going to be an easy mission," chief technical officer and potential crew member Taber MacCallum said in an interview. "We called it the Lewis and Clark trip to Mars."

It also involves a huge risk, more than a government agency like NASA would normally permit, officials concede.

"It's a risk well worth taking," MacCallum said. He said it harkens back to the days when people took risks when it was meaningful, and he said it could be an inspiration, especially to students.

As for why a couple will make the flight, "this is very symbolic and we really need it to represent humanity with a man and a woman," MacCallum said.

He said if it is a man and a woman on such a long, close-quarters voyage, it makes sense for them to be married so that they can give each other the emotional support that will probably need when they look out the window and see Earth get smaller and more distant: "If that's not scary, I don't know what is."

The project aims to capitalize on the once-in-a-generation close approach of the two planets' orbits. The timeline for the 501-day mission is set out in a technical paper to be presented next month at a scientific meeting. It calls for a launch on Jan. 5, 2018, a Mars flyby on Aug. 20, 2018, and a return to Earth on May 21, 2019.

In a statement, NASA spokesman David Steitz said the venture validates President Barack Obama's decision to rely more on private sector ingenuity to explore space, and is "a testament to the audacity of America's commercial aerospace industry and the adventurous spirit of America's citizen-explorers."

He said "NASA will continue discussions with Inspiration Mars to see how the agency might collaborate on mutually beneficial activities."

Stanford University professor Scott Hubbard, NASA's former Mars mission chief, said that the team's technical paper is "long on inspiration, short on technical details. What is there is correct."

"It's sort of an audacious thing to say, 'I'm going to fly by Mars in five years,'" said MacCallum, who was part of a team that lived for two years in Biosphere 2, a sort of giant terrarium on Earth that was supposed to replicate a mission on another planet.
http://news.yahoo.com/tycoon-proposes-send-married-couple-around-mars-180141696.html

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T
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posted February 27, 2013 06:31 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for T     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Mars is not an attractive planet to me . I much prefer the nature and grandure of earth.......and two feet on it's ground.

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charmainec
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From: Venus next to Randall
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posted February 27, 2013 11:28 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for charmainec     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
An adventure and an unforgettable experience. The view of Earth from up there must be incredible to witness and Mars too.

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quote:
Remember, love can conquer the influences of the planets....It can even eliminate karma.

Linda Goodman

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T
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posted February 27, 2013 11:48 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for T     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I've seen the view in my astral travels (seriously). Yeah meh....it's alright, i guess.

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T
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posted February 27, 2013 11:50 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for T     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Nothing beats the view of the night sky from planet earth.

(especially in less light polluted areas of the world)

it's all perspective, really.

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Love&Light
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posted February 28, 2013 12:21 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Love&Light     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
@ Randall: This could be a beginning of commoners going to space. Taking into consideration the fact that we have entered/entering acquarius age we can gradually expect Star Treck days. Ofcourse that might be a little more in the future. Perhaps a century or two. We have come a long way technically in the last century alone what with electricity,tv, planes, mobile,satellites etc we can expect a common man to go to space. Another stride in this direction. I wonder how long will it be till there is a public service of spaceship where we could commute between any two given planets.

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aquaguy91
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posted February 28, 2013 12:28 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for aquaguy91     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
a man and a woman cramped together in a tiny capsule for months? sounds like a recipe for divorce.

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charmainec
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From: Venus next to Randall
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posted February 28, 2013 01:04 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for charmainec     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Love&Light:
@ Randall: This could be a beginning of commoners going to space. Taking into consideration the fact that we have entered/entering acquarius age we can gradually expect Star Treck days. Ofcourse that might be a little more in the future. Perhaps a century or two. We have come a long way technically in the last century alone what with electricity,tv, planes, mobile,satellites etc we can expect a common man to go to space. Another stride in this direction. I wonder how long will it be till there is a public service of spaceship where we could commute between any two given planets.

I watched a documentary about a similar topics a few weeks ago and it is basically their goal. One day in the distant future space travel will be the norm. They are currently investigating all the pros and cons.
They hope to find a planet similar to Earth out of our solar system just in case we run out of resources or some catastrophe hits.

------------------

quote:
Remember, love can conquer the influences of the planets....It can even eliminate karma.

Linda Goodman

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charmainec
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From: Venus next to Randall
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posted February 28, 2013 01:06 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for charmainec     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
DP

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Love&Light
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posted February 28, 2013 01:25 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Love&Light     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by aquaguy91:
a man and a woman cramped together in a tiny capsule for months? sounds like a recipe for divorce.

Yup and later i guess they would eventually get re-married for lack of choice. You know getting used to eachother and all.

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Love&Light
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posted February 28, 2013 01:29 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Love&Light     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by charmainec:
I watched a documentary about a similar topics a few weeks ago and it is basically their goal. One day in the distant future space travel will be the norm. They are currently investigating all the pros and cons.
They hope to find a planet similar to Earth out of our solar system just in case we run out of resources or some catastrophe hits.


And i am sure they will find one sooner or later. It seems there are lot of them. Its only a matter of discovery. I havn't seen them but thats what our wise men have to say, seers, scientists et al.

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T
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posted February 28, 2013 01:34 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for T     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by aquaguy91:
a man and a woman cramped together in a tiny capsule for months? sounds like a recipe for divorce.

dear god.

so true though.

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T
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posted February 28, 2013 01:38 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for T     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I vote, we clean up our own planet first. Before skipping off to the next big thing, why don't we take care of our own mother earth that has been so good to us and who we've abused already so badly.

I really don't get this whole Mars thing. Whether you want to fly above it, or build a new home there. It's crazy. Crazy to want to explore other planets when we've abused the one we live on already so badly.

Let's heal earth first before drifting off into space and attempting to live on then then surely destroy other planets we really know nothing about.

Become more captivated with our beautiful homeland. It's not a hard thing to do.

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T
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posted February 28, 2013 01:40 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for T     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I find nothing romantic about that article. I wish they didnt try to portray doing something like that as a nice romantic thing to do. It's ugly.

Earth first!

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T
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posted February 28, 2013 01:43 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for T     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I notice it's mostly something "Trekkies" are attracted to.

What's wrong with this place? Let's nuture it, transform it, heal it, before we abandon it and try to play Star Trek with each other.

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teasel
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posted February 28, 2013 10:44 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for teasel     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by aquaguy91:
a man and a woman cramped together in a tiny capsule for months? sounds like a recipe for divorce.

I once had a dream about travelling to Mars. It ended up being similar to a Stephen King story that I later read. There was a quick trip involved, no circling the planet - people were living there.

But I've always believed that we should take care of where we are first, rather than messing this place up, moving to Mars, messing that up, and eyeing up Venus or the Moon.

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Love&Light
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posted March 04, 2013 10:35 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Love&Light     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by charmainec:
I watched a documentary about a similar topics a few weeks ago and it is basically their goal. One day in the distant future space travel will be the norm. They are currently investigating all the pros and cons.
They hope to find a planet similar to Earth out of our solar system just in case we run out of resources or some catastrophe hits.


Talking of documentaries on these lines i saw one by Stephen Hawkings the other day on TV. But i switched onto it somewhere down the line. It was very interesting. I am sure you will like it since such topics interest you. It was named Grand Design. There are 3 parts to it. I intend to download them and watch. If they are interesting enough i will start a new thread. It has nothing to do with Mars colonisation or trips but basically about creation and our concepts of freedom etc in the light of science.

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charmainec
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From: Venus next to Randall
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posted March 05, 2013 02:10 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for charmainec     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thank you for the suggestion.
Anything pertaining to space travel, planets etc intrigues me.

------------------

quote:
Remember, love can conquer the influences of the planets....It can even eliminate karma.

Linda Goodman

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Love&Light
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From: India
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posted March 05, 2013 09:13 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Love&Light     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I thought so.

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11nahyt
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From: the future
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posted March 05, 2013 09:35 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for 11nahyt     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
"33 stunning photos of earth , taken by a guy from space"
http://www.buzzfeed.com/gavon/33-stunning-photos-of-earth-taken-by-an-astronaut

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G

The pic of the southern lights , is soo beautiful.. And that close up picture of what earth,and of some of the cities look like at night from space. Just wow

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